Hope for the Mom with a Bad Attitude

Welcome to 31 Days of Hope for Moms! To see all the posts in the series, click here!

Today (yesterday once you read this), I had a bad attitude. My 3 year old was bored and getting into trouble, I had an event that needed to be prepared for and a house that wouldn’t clean itself, and a blog post to write.

The baby took too short of a short nap, unrolled all of the toilet paper and stuck her hands in the toilet water while I was trying to bring in groceries from the car.

Looking back on it at 11 pm, it’s actually pretty funny! But sometimes I don’t gain that perspective until I step away from the situation.

I originally had planned to write about hope for the mom who yells. And we’ll get around to that subject, I promise. But I was slightly derailed by another thought.

Why do I have such a bad attitude about my children? Why do I allow the annoyances of the day to put me in a not-so-great mood which then turns into a not-so-great day for everyone?

You see, earlier tonight my husband and I attended our local Women’s Pregnancy Center banquet, where NFL player Matt Birk shared a godly, affirming message and also about he and his family’s involvement in pro-life causes. It was also the “one year anniversary” of my due date and I was remembering back to when I was still pregnant (and would be for 8 more days) with my little Lydia.

Being at that banquet reminded me again that although there are many, many little things that can go awry during a day, especially with busy children, my bad mood was really quite unnecessary. My children are blessings, ALL children are blessings and as one who embraces a pro-life stance, it is important for me to reflect that in my day to day life at home.

At its core, a lousy attitude is a reflection of ungratefulness, a practice of becoming so caught up with our own situation that we fail to look at things with a long-term perspective.

Choosing to have a better attitude about the moment to moment occurrences of life is also a practice, but a far more productive and encouraging one. It takes time. And it takes the grace of God. If I think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps and please Him by my own efforts, I am much too full of myself.

Let’s face it, the events that aggravate us and heighten our poor attitudes DO exist! Kids get into trouble, pipes burst and dinner burns on the stove. We need to accept the reality that no day will ever be perfect, but there are still blessings contained within those moments.

It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22

If you’re struggling to embrace a favorable attitude about your children, home or present day situation, here are a couple of practical thoughts:

1) Press Pause.

What I mean by that is when you’re starting to feel frustration rise, pause for a moment and remind yourself of why you’re a mom. I’ll often repeat to myself something like “I can do this. I’m in control of my own attitude.” Think about how what you are about to say will sound to your kids. Ask yourself, “are my expectations too high?” Whatever area you are most struggling with regarding your attitude, you can have your thoughts and perspective be “retrained”. Speaking truth to yourself will go a long way.

2) Learn Scripture.

Find and memorize Bible verses that will help you combat grumpiness and a poor attitude {see the end of the post for how I’ll help you do that!}. Is changing your attitude as easy as “memorizing Bible verses”? Not necessarily, it takes time to grow and change! But you’ll find that once you learn those Scriptures, they will come to mind when needed (thank you, Holy Spirit!)

3) Get sleep.

Remember how on I talked about the fact that tiredness is likely the cause or instigator of many of our other struggles as a mom? Go to bed and leave your to-do list for tomorrow {note to self}. You’ll have more energy to complete it when you’ve gotten sleep!

4) Physically write down your blessings and things you are thankful for.

Grab a notebook and jot down things you’re thankful for the next time you’re feeling like your attitude is struggling, or keep a notecard full of blessings in a place you can look at it every day! Have your kids do this as well. Shift your focus to gratefulness and you’ll find that your blessings come to mind the next time a hard day happens.

5) When you feel your bad attitude coming on, do this one simple thing.

Go to your child, give them a hug and say “I love you.” Works. Every. Time.

Here is a free printable with some Bible verses that address the issues we’ve talked about this week: tiredness, exasperation and bad attitudes. I hope they’ll be a great resource for you to print out and quickly reference when you are going through difficult times. There is no better way to be strengthened and changed than by reading the Word of God!

No More Angry Mom

Become a more gentle and loving mom through actionable steps you can take that are incredibly encouraging and biblically practical! (click on the photo to learn more about it!)