The Glad Game...

During the Christmas season (and sometimes beyond), our kids have two movies that they probably watch just about every single day if we will let them: "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas," and "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas." They never tire of the stories, the jokes, the animation--they just love watching them! As a child, I remember having movies that I was exactly the same way about. You would often catch me standing in front of the TV as Dorothy would sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," or you'd see the wonder in my eyes as I watched "Mary Poppins" and thought Jane and Michael Banks seemed so much bigger than I. (I'll never forget watching it for the first time when I was a bit older and thinking, "Did they shrink? They look so LITTLE now!" haha;-) While most of the movies I enjoyed fequently as a child were musicals, (surprise, surprise!;-), there was another classic that you'd find me asking to watch pretty frequently despite the actors not breaking into random song throughout. That movie was "Pollyanna." Perhaps it was that the story was about a little girl who got to wear frilly dresses and live in a huge home that attracted me to it, but I think it had more to do with the main character that was revealed in the movie: Pollyanna herself. This was a girl who had basically come from nothing that had fallen into everything. But it wasn't all those "things" that made Pollyanna so intriguing; it was her attitude. I loved her imagination, her confidence, and, yes, of course her accent, too!;-) But I think perhaps the most endearing thing about Pollyanna was her ability to look beyond what things were and see them for what they could be. Throughout the movie, she references a game that she would play called the "glad game." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ihxyf7A1hg Basically, she would look at each circustmance thrown her way and find a way that she could be thankful for it. 

James 1:2-4 tells us this: "Consider it PURE joy when you face trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Do I look at every circumstance that comes my way as a positive opportunity? Is each obastacle truly an opportunity in my eyes? It's so much easier to get beaten down and focus on the negative side of things, because if we are being honest, when trials come into our lives, it feels more like we are LOSING out, rather than gaining anything. When your husband loses his job, when your children get sick, when friends betray your trust, when things keep breaking in the house, when you discover a flat tire...but God tells us to consider all of these things PURE joy.  See, our Heavenly Father accepts us just as we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay there. He desires that we be "complete, lacking NOTHING." When we think of that end result, it sounds really enticing, but the process to get to there isn't always easy. However, it's the perception we choose to have in the midst of the process that makes all of the difference.

In the movie, Pollyanna visits a man who has a bunch of crystals hanging around his house. Pollyanna is enthralled with how the prisms create rainbows against his walls when the light hits them. The man didn't think much of them, but Pollyanna talks him into stringing them up all over the house and they're astonished by the beauty that was created in the room by how the light caught the prisms and created rainbows everywhere. I think, sometimes, I feel like I have a lot of stuff just "hanging" around in my life that dosn't seem to have much use, but if I will allow God to shine His light on it, He's able to create something so beautiful from it! 

How can I choose, today, to be thankful in all circumstances? How can I choose to look beyond the muck and the mire and see the beauty God is working to ufold? Do I truly believe that God's purpose for everything in my life is to allow me to be "complete, not lacking anything"? I so often want to fight that process, but my prayer today is that I would surrender to the way HE desires to work. 

Anyone up for a game today??;-)