As christian parents we know that joyful parenting exists when we are plugged in to the Source of joy. But what is it exactly that plugs us in to His joy?
Jesus says to his disciples in one of his last lessons to them, "I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." (John 15:11) Sounds great - so what did he tell them? We, too, want our joy to be "complete"!
The answer to this is surprising. The verse before that explains that it is remaining in Him and in His love that will do this for us. And the verse following tells us how to do that. He says we will remain in his love by following his commands. And guess what command he is referring to? "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Wow!
If you string that all together you will see that our fountain of joy flows most freely when we are laying down our lives in service for others. Conversely, when we are thinking about only ourselves, and trying to make ourselves happy, our fountain is stopped up.
The key to joyful parenting is remaining in Christ, loving Him, our families and others and pouring out our lives "like a drink offering" to serve those around us. Put others first, "do not think of yourself more highly than you ought", and "consider others more worthy [of preferential treatment] than ourselves".
Of course it goes without saying that we want to teach our children to love and serve others, too. We don't just serve them sacrificially, turning them into lazy monarchs in the home. We serve while teaching them the benefit of doing the same. We don't teach them to serve by making them serve us all day long. (Boy, get me a beer!) They learn first and fastest by watching and imitating their role models - us.
Create an atmosphere of joy in your home by allowing God to reveal to you that you have already lain down you life with Him. Your service of your family is an act of praise to Him, and is given to Him because He loved you first. When it is a privilege to work for the King, joyful parenting is par for the course.