This is the best day ever

We were sitting at the dinner table one evening last week when Izzy, who is almost 5, said something that she says quite a lot.

Let me tell you about that day first.  It's important to know that it had not been the best day ever.  Not the worst; but definitely not the best.

It was a cold day and we hadn't been able to go outside (what kid doesn't love to play outside?).  It was extra disappointing because the previous two days had been warm and beautiful; the first two springy days after our crazy cold and snowy winter.  So, we had been stuck inside all day...again.

She had bumped her head on the kitchen table pretty hard.  That was not fun.

She got in trouble more than once; for what I don't even know.  That was not fun either.

She had to wipe off the kitchen table after lunch, which she was just not in the mood to do (let me say, though, that she really doesn't complain much about having to do her daily "chores:"  making her bed, changing her clothes, brushing her teeth, and wiping off the table).

She did not get to watch a movie.  She wants to do that everyday.  We actually have a song we sing that goes like this:

Yeehaw, Izzy loves to watch movies!

Yeehaw, Izzy loves to watch movies!

She just wants to watch movies all day long!

Yeehaw, Izzy loves to watch movies!

If you don't recognize that song, it's out of an Elmo book.  We obviously changed the words!

She fought with and told on Addy a lot.  All. day. long.  For what, I don't even know.

Okay, that's all I can think of, but hopefully you get my point.  There were a lot of things that happened that day, just like most days, that were not that fun.

But, as we sat at the dinner table that evening, out of nowhere she blurts out those 6 words that she so often says, 

"This is the best day ever!"

She wasn't concerned about all the negative, discouraging things that had happened that day.  In fact, she acted as if nothing discouraging had happened.

She also wasn't worried about those discouraging parts of the day repeating themselves the next day.

All she did was rejoice.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else."

I know I'm guilty of that.

Sometimes I think I spend more time focusing on the negative and letting those things get to me rather than just rejoicing.  Not just rejoicing in the good things, but rejoicing in everything.

If only we could see life the way a child sees it.  (Of course it could have just been the ice cream we were going to eat later.)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18