I had one of those days this week where I just felt kind of blah. I just wasn’t feeling joyful, thankful or even hopeful. I started running down all the things that I didn’t like right then. But then the Lord spoke to my heart with one word…Pollyanna! Yeah, the old Disney movie with Haley Mills in it. She played a young girl whose parents had been missionaries who had tragically died and she was taken to the town of Harrington where her Aunt Polly lived and because of her wealth and position, could have and do just about anything her heart desired. But she is probably the unhappiest person in town. She agreed to take her sister’s cheerful daughter and is confronted by this young girl who can see any number of things to be happy and joyful about. Pollyanna finds the whole town pretty much with the same dour attitude about life as her wealthy aunt. And so she begins to tell the people she encounters about a game that her father had taught her called “the glad game”. Whenever your joy seemed to have faded or your heart was heavy, the object of the game was to look for as many things as you could to be “glad” about. In this wonderfully fanciful tale, her joyful heart begins to infect the whole town and eventually even her aunt. In our culture now, to be called a “Pollyanna” is a term of derision. You are one who is naïve or just ignorant. The people who say that are poisoned with the disease that Aunt Polly had. I want to be a Pollyanna…and it will always be a choice I have to make. Sometimes daily…sometimes minute by minute. I began to play the “glad game” in my car. But really it was “What could I thank God for?” I started with my car that I was driving…and I went from there. I had to quit when I got to my next stop…but it was enough to open my eyes to how good God has been, was then and how good he will be in the days ahead. But why be thankful? A verse that I treasure in this season of my life is Mark 10:27… “With people it is impossible. Not so with God. With God all things are possible.” So when things aren’t working out like you wanted or you are just having a bad day…play that “glad game”…the Bible version. And look around you at all the things that you can and ought to thank God for. And you might just make the change from Aunt Polly to Pollyanna. And that my friends is just where God wants us to be. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Psalms 30:11-12 BSB You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, (12) that my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks forever.
Remember I’m praying for you!
With love, PJ
Psalms 30:11-12 BSB You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, (12) that my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks forever.
Remember I’m praying for you!
With love, PJ