50s Housewife: Be a Cheerleader!

One of my favorite Blogs is 50's Housewife. She always has such uplifting and encouraging posts and once again she did not disappoint!

50s Housewife: Be a Cheerleader!
I am going to cheer on my family this week. Below are some of things that she suggested we do this week.

1. Ask for God's help to focus on the positive.
I think this is a great idea. Of course, I know that without HIM all of my ideas fail but most of the time I need to be reminded to ask for help!

2.. "Catch" them being good and praise them for it. "It's so thoughtful of you to offer to play a game with your sister!" or "Thanks honey for researching all the different dishwashers so we would know which one would be the best buy!"
This is something that I definitely need to work on. Why is that I find it so easy to see the bad or the mistakes in my family and so hard to see their good?

3. Be aware of what I'm saying and try to make sure that my positive comments far out way any negative comments (including the comments to myself in my head).
OH MY how I need to work on this one. I feel that I'm a pretty positive person (when it comes to my children)! I do feel that I'm their biggest cheerleader (but I'm probably one of their hardest critics too). Unfortunately, I'm not the most positive person when it comes to my husband or myself. But since I recognize that, I should be able to fix that right?!

4. Find a small, practical, fun way to bless them such as renting a favorite movie, taking them for ice cream, surprising them with an outing, etc. Do a little something nice for myself too. Maybe I'll light a scented candle in the bathroom and have a long, relaxing soak in the tub at the end of a busy day.
This is an easy one! As a one-income family that tries to live on a budget my husband and I like to plan special (low cost to no-cost) family times. We have family move nights and if my husband has a day off we will go to Sea World or Disney World (we have annual passes).

5. Say something nice about each member of my family to other people.
I think this one should be easy! I think! I'm pretty sure that I'm always positive about my family with others (OK maybe not with my Best Friend, but that's what Best Friends are for RIGHT!?). But I'm going to try and take extra care this week and just make sure that what I think I'm doing I'm actually doing.

6. Respond to complaints and problems in a positive manner and with hope.
This is one I certainly need to work on. I tend to borrow trouble (a lot). So this one will be a great one for me to focus on but also a difficult one at the same time.

7. Avoid any passive aggressive behavior. No heavy sighs and martyrs faces while I say something like "Don't worry, I'll take out the trash myself. I do everything around here anyway."
I think this one is my favorites. I do tend to play the martyr at my house and I'm sure it gets very old to my family. So I am going to try and quit the sighing and the martyr comments.

I am very excited to give these idea a try and I pray that I'm successful and that this new "attitude" catches on and stays much longer than the end of this week.