Verse #7 (and our new habit)

In all honesty, I feel a little cheaty about choosing this verse to memorize. Not that "cheaty" is a word. [In fact, spell check is clearly telling me that it's not. Spell check would prefer that I use the word chesty, actually, but I'm ignoring that and moving on.]

Well. Here's the verse, and then I'll tell you why I feel cheaty about it.

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)

A good verse. And I need it. The cheerful heart part. I really struggle lately (okay, maybe always?) in sounding like a drill sergeant with my children, and I want so much to be a joyful, fun, smiling mama. [This morning I literally thought about hanging up a big sign for myself that says, "Lighten up."]

But the cheaty part is that I already know this verse. Not that I've actually taken time to memorize it before, but it's just one of those verses that I've heard so many times that I know it already. I don't know the reference, though. So I will be memorizing that.

But even though it feels a bit cheaty, I'm going with it, anyway. I'm still working on memorizing the last two verses, and because, like I said: I need the cheerful heart this verse speaks of, and it will be good to meditate on the verse and pray toward that end.

The kids are memorizing it, too. Cheerfulness is the new habit we're practicing. They're far quicker than I am at learning, and I figure if they "get" it and walk around all cheery and smiling, it just might be contagious. I've also bribed them just a bit, by telling them that the cheeriest child gets a jelly belly at the end of each day. [That may not seem like a lot to you, but to our children who rarely get candy, one jelly belly is ALL it takes.]