I am the worst - I am not a fan of the cold and snow and am too quick to tell you how miserable I am. When we woke up to snow this morning (yes, on October 4th!!) I decided that I wasn't going to complain about it today. Sure enough my kiddos came in my room as soon as the sun was up this morning jumping up and down shouting, "It's snowing!" I squashed my thoughts of the extra work the morning would bring - the shoveling, the coats and boots and missing mittens, the roads. I made hot chocolate for them WITH marshmallows, tossed their blankets in the dryer and turned on a worship CD. The first snow of the year is fun for kids - I wasn't going to ruin their joy. As I was sipping my coffee and they were stating out the window a verse came to mind. (Sometimes teachable moments are more for us than our kids)
"This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalms 118:24 NLT)
I called my kids into the kitchen and set the time for 60 seconds. I told them we had 60 seconds to complain about why we don't like the cold and snow then we would only say good things about it the rest of the day. We took turns then when the timer went off we recited the verse several times together. We talked about how our words are powerful and how we can use them to either build each other up or year each other down. And how complaining all the time can make others around us unhappy. But when we are cheerful and choose to say things that are positive we can encourage people and brighten their day, even change their own bad attitude. As I sent my oldest to school I challenged him to respond with something good or fun about the snow whenever he heard someone complain. Will you take the challenge too?
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