How Your Attitude Can Affect Your Children

How Your Attitude Can Affect Your Children

Have you ever had one of those days?

You know the kind I’m talking about…

The one where your toddler woke up whining about any and everything. Your baby seems to be going through a growth spurt because she won’t stop nursing. You’re changing WAY more diapers than usual. The laundry is piled up to the ceiling. It’s 5’oclock and you still haven’t taken meat out of the freezer for dinner. You have to get the house ready for company tomorrow and the house is a total mess.

And all you want to do is CRY…Or Scream.

Well, what you’d REALLY like to do is have 10 minutes (even 5 minutes would be great) of alone time.

You are not a happy mom at the moment. Far from it.

Can you raise your hand if you’ve ever had one of these kinds of days? Or something similar? C’mon…don’t leave me hanging here. I can’t be the only one. If you’re a mom, I’m sure that you have. They’re inevitable. Thankfully they aren’t the every day. But every day with kids can be a challenge of one kind or another.

Now let me ask you something personal, and you don’t have to answer out loud, but be honest with yourself here. Have you ever just, you know…blown up at one or all of your kids? Have you had a mommy outburst and felt so guilty for it afterwards?

I can tell you that I have. And you know what it does? It actually seems to make things worse. Not only do I feel downright awful when I’ve had an outburst, but it actually seems to make my kids act even more difficult. Why is that? Why can’t they just see that mommy is having one of those days where I need them to be really good and go easy on me?

Creating an Atmosphere of Love

What if I told you that YOU have the power to make your day, your home, and your kids happy…or miserable? No pressure or anything.

But, have you ever heard the saying that the mom is the glue that holds the family together, or that the mom is “the heart” of the family?

Every family dynamic is different, of course, but there’s a special calling that mom’s have to be that heart of the family. It’s a special ministry that God has ordained for mom’s and it’s such an honor to have that responsibility. But it also is just that…a great responsibility.

I want to share something really amazing with you that will give you some insight as to WHY your attitude affects not just your kids, and your husband, but the very atmosphere of peace in your home. It’s pretty fascinating.

The Water Crystallization Experiment

To set the stage, the first thing I want to show you is an experiment that Dr. Masaru Emoto performed. In this experiment, he would speak, type, or show something loving or hateful to water under a microscope.

He wanted to see what would happen to the water on a molecular level. The results were pretty startling. What he found was that the molecular structure of the water instantly changed whenever it was presented with an emotion.

Whenever a positive word/thought was directed at the water, the molecules crystallized into extremely beautiful almost snowflake looking shapes. But when a negative word/thought was directed at the water, the molecules would almost look like they would fall apart or become extremely dark and sick looking. Have a look at this video to see what I mean:

Pretty incredible, right? Maybe you’re skeptical. That’s okay, there are ways you can test this for yourself, even if you don’t have a microscope.

Doing The Love/Hate Experiment for Yourself

If you want to run an experiment that will yield similar results, there are several out there that you can do at home.

The most popular, and easiest way that you can test this at home is by doing the love/hate rice experiment. There are so many people that have performed this experiment on YouTube, but here’s just one of them:

You can find many more videos of these experiments documented on YouTube.

But all of them come out the same. The rice that has been exposed to hateful thoughts/words becomes moldy and nasty, while the rice that has been exposed to loving thoughts/words stays looking good enough to eat for way longer than usual.

How does this apply to my children?

As you watch the videos above perhaps you can piece together how this can affect your child. If not, let me explain a little further.

Did you know our bodies are made up of 60% water? Babies and kids actually are made up of a higher percentage of water. Babies just born are made up of 75% water and by one year they are made up of about 65% water.

If our intentions and emotions can affect a drop of water on a microscope or the water that has been used to cook rice, how much more can other people be affected by the attitudes we direct towards them? Especially when you consider HOW MUCH they are made up of water.

Think about it. Every water molecule in your body is affected by the emotions that other people direct at you. This goes for your kids too.

So when you have a mommy outburst, what is happening in your child’s body that you can’t see?

I know…no pressure or anything. 😉

Showing Love is Sharing God

This is such an incredible piece of evidence for the effects that our emotions have on everything (and everyone) around us. But, when you look at this from a Christian perspective it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Remember what we’re are told about love in the Bible:

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” – John 4:7-8

When we are showing love towards others, we are, in essence, sharing God’s love with them. God is the bringer of life, love, and light. Even His creation sings praises for His Glory:

“All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.” – Psalm 66:4

Love is Patient, Love is Kind. But Give Yourself Grace

As moms, the well being of our families is very important to us. By practicing a biblical love that is patient and kind we can give our children a gift that not only will affect their immediate moods, but could potentially affect their longevity (if you take the love/hate rice experiment into consideration).

But remember, that we are not perfect. God is perfect. And even when we do mess up, there is always forgiveness. So give yourself some grace here as God has.

Grow in Grace. And pray that God will give you a love and patience for your children and husband that will stand the test of trials and will improve your family’s moods and health.

You can do this! Oh, and if you need some practical ideas on how to stop indulging in anger towards your children, check out this article. It is pretty cool! I really want to try this with my own toddler, because there be days when I need help!

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