Thing 1 and Thing 2 each have a hamster. Watching the hamsters run on the wheel makes me feel like I belong in their cage. I run 90 miles an hour in a million different directions but get nowhere. Can anyone relate?

I make mistakes every day. I fail as a mom. I fail as a wife. But the point is to learn from my mistakes, shake it off, and try again. The point is to get off the silly hamster wheel and not make the same mistakes over and over again!

A church sign on the side of a country road recently caught my attention, It read, Choose Kindness and Laugh Often. Choose Kindness was my first blog about the 2Wrds my husband and I try to teach our children. But what I loved about the sign was LAUGH OFTEN.

Parenting should come with an instruction manual that says learn to laugh. A lot! Laugh at the little things that happen on a daily basis. LAUGH OFTEN with your children. Don’t let the little things bog you down. LAUGH OFTEN at yourself. Your blunders, your mistakes, and know it’s all going to work out in the end. Being one of the most accident prone people on earth, I’ve had to learn to LAUGH OFTEN at myself!

My husband and I brought this quality into our marriage and into our parenting. Our family thrives on humor, joking, and teasing. We laugh with each other (and if we’re honest, we laugh at each other too). Each time I mess up, I must choose between treating it as a failure or laughing about it.

Life is full of ups and downs, joys and disappointments. There may be a disappointment right around the corner, but why worry about what may come? Be content in the moment. When we choose to be kind, our vision changes. We see the world differently. When we put others before ourselves, it creates a sense of happiness that results in laughter. I guess that’s what the church sign meant by choose kindness and laugh often.

LAUGH OFTEN means living in the present, enjoying what we have right now.

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