Emotions are contagious. And little children have lots of emotions. They’ll be laughing with glee one minute, screaming in a panic the next, and throwing a tantrum the minute after that. When they’re smiling up into my eyes, I just can’t help smiling back, but when I’m hearing the start of a brawl over who decides what to do with the fun box Daddy brought home from work or who’s taking the larger half of the big desk chair, I can feel the irritation bubbling up in my own spirit, too. It always makes me think of a passage in Proverbs.

Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. –Proverbs 22:24-25

Angry people out in the world can sometimes be avoided, but we mothers often have a little brood of grumps right in our own homes and their anger is just as contagious. It doesn’t take much listening to irritation and bickering and our joy is getting dumped and splattered faster than the milk in a two-year-old’s big girl cup.

If we don’t want our families to live in homes overcome with bad attitudes, we need to fight back with a few contagious emotions of our own. Choosing to be the one with the joy is actually a lot easier than it sometimes feels, a lesson I learned from, all all things, my exercise DVD.

One of my favorite baby weight burners is an exercise DVD from BJU. For starters, the women wear clothes instead of glorified underwear. The music has no annoying lyrics to get stuck in my head and sung inadvertently at odd moments for my children to ask about. The late 80’s, early 90’s make-up and ginormous hair is, shall we say, fabulous. And best of all, it’s taught me this important truth.

See, at the start of one of the workouts that I do frequently, the instructor says, “Right heel and left toe. Get ready. Smile.” And maybe I’m just way too much of a follower, but I always do. No matter how joyless I actually was a minute before, I smile. Just like that. And I instantly feel better. I can’t smile long on the outside before the smile starts to become more real on the inside. I feel lighter, shed a few emotional pounds, notice that the world isn’t quite so bleak. And all it took was being told to do it. Oh, yes, smiling, right. Good idea. I can decide to kick my right heel out, and I can decide to smile.

God tells us to be joyful in Him, over and over in His Word. For example:

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. –Philippians 4:4

But we so often have excuses why that is just way too hard. Frequently, for us mommies, those excuses are short and share our last name. We can’t be joyful. These kids are driving us crazy! They’re crying and yelling and fighting and complaining, and Right heel and left toe. Get ready. Smile. If we can choose to kick our heel out, we can choose to smile. We can obey the Lord. We can spread joy. We can fight the irritation infestation with cheerful smiles that may have to start on the outside with mere muscle movements, but they can make their way inside as we lean on the Lord and choose to obey Him. Let’s spread a little joy today.

Get ready. Smile.