Is this your best day ever? Recently I handed my four year old three marshmallows and he proclaimed, “This is my best day ever!” Wow. What if we could get that excited about the little things? Wouldn’t it be great if we could let the happy little things influence our days like that?
What if when we woke up in the morning our first thought was, “This is great, I have another day on planet earth! I can’t wait to see what happens today!” Better yet, what if we actually looked for the happy things, the blessings hiding throughout our days?
Ann Voskamp’s book, “One Thousand Gifts” made a huge impact on me in this area.* She was challenged by a friend to write down one thousand blessings. The book is about her journey as she pursued that challenge and how it changed her outlook on life. As she started writing things down, she was able to start seeing the blessings hiding in plain sight.
As I have written my own list of gifts, it has helped me see good things even in days that I would not necessarily call my best. That list has also helped me see God’s faithfulness in showing up over and over to surprise me with blessings: the sun shining through an oak tree; a perfect spider web covered in dew drops; a little boy excited about a few marshmallows.
But what about the days that are really hard? As Ann continued on her journey of discovering gifts, she learned about seeing the blessings even in the dark times. I really believe God is still there in those times waiting to show us the good gifts He has put throughout our days and also to help us look at situations from His point of view. Someone was telling me about a video they saw about a mom having what she thought was a really rough day. Then she got to hear her daughter tell her daddy about the day from her point of view and everything “bad” that had happened was actually “happy” in the little girl’s eyes.
May we not get so caught up in the perfect that we fail to see the best. My challenge to all of us is to look for the gifts in each moment, “good” or “bad” and maybe this will be our best day ever!
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
* I would highly recommend Ann Voskamp’s book, “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are” published by Zondervan.
God’s timing is always perfect. Each of your posts come right when I need them. Isn’t it amazing and wonderful how He can do that?
God’s timing is always so good.
Such a great reminder, Christy. This can be a struggle for me especially in this season of longing and waiting for our daughter. Joy seems to fade into the background. Yet joy is there waiting for us to grab hold of, in the simple, mundane, hard and unlikely places.
Give me eyes, Lord that I may see.
I too highly recommend “One Thousand Gifts”. This book is beautiful and inspiring!
Sometimes the joy God gives is like the eye of the storm, something beautiful in the midst of the swirling mess!
We just have to acknowledge his blessings and they are there.