A Happy Heart

I keep seeing things pop up, mostly on Pinterest, that say something along the lines of "If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it". Have y'all seen these things too? Or maybe you just know people that think this is a great philosophy? Can I just say... what a load of crap?!

You have to do things that don't make you happy. You have to do things you don't want to do. That's life. Not doing something simply because "you don't wanna" is called being selfish, and no one likes selfish people. What a horrible more horrible world we would live in if no one did anything they didn't want to do. First of all... almost everyone would be jobless.

Parents need to be teaching their kids to have serving, selfless hearts. I know when I babysit kids and tell the kids to clean up their toys they say "I don't want to". Shocking, I know. I almost always respond with "I didn't ask you if you want to. I told you to do it." Then they grumble and complain because they are having to do something they don't want to do and I'm complaining because they are complaining. Why don't I, instead, use this as a moment to work on their hearts? I heard my aunt ask her daughter, who was complaining about having to do something she didn't want to do, "How should we do things?" my cousin replied, "Right away, all the way and with a happy heart". For some reason this saying has stuck with me. When we are asked to do something we need to do it right away. We need to do it well (all the way) and, most importantly, we need to not have a sucky attitude while we're doing it. Of course, that's so much easier said than done. I know, even as an adult, I don't usually have a happy heart when I am having to do something I don't want to do. So how on earth do we teach our kids to have happy hearts? "You will do it and you will like it!" doesn't actually work, does it? I definitely think it starts with the parents (or in my case babysitter). Lead by example. Seek out opportunities to serve, even though you might not particularly enjoy doing it, can't we enjoy that we are making someone else happy?

I don't have the answer to this and I'm sure a lot of you zoned out when someone who doesn't even have kids started talking about parenting, but this is something that, as a babysitter and eventual mother, I ponder about. How do we teach our kids to WANT to serve? How do we teach our kids to have happy hearts when doing something they don't want to do? No, these are not rhetorical questions. I want to hear from you! How do you do it?!

I suppose my point is, not everything is about YOUR happiness and just because you're doing something that doesn't make you happy, doesn't mean you should have a crap-tastic attitude about it! Have a happy heart!

And that's enough of this "deep" Southern Soapbox.