The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they make the best of everything.
“You’re such a Pollyanna!” Have you ever heard that phrase? It’s typically used when people are overly optimistic. It’s intended to be an insult but I’ve never understood why. Pollyanna is one of my favorite childhood movies. Played by the incomparable Hayley Mills, She is an orphan who is sent to live with her very wealthy great aunt Polly. Subsequently, Pollyanna’s joyful and optimistic attitude transforms the dreary and hopeless town.
How did she do it? She chose gratitude, not because things were easy and she had more than enough. Quite the opposite! She was a child of very poor missionaries and when her parents died she was sent to live with a woman who wanted nothing to do with her. Pollyanna had every right to choose fear, she could have let bitterness and hopelessness shape her view. Instead she chose to see the good and play The Glad Game.
Better to have little, with fear for the Lord, than to have great treasure and inner turmoil.
Proverbs 15:16
Our perspective matters. What we choose to look at has a great effect on not only our lives, but the people around us. Choosing to see the good, focus on the hope and lock eyes with THE joy Bringer, Jesus, may certainly cause people to judge you. But remember, Pollyanna and the glad game transformed an entire town.
Try it! Play the Glad Game. Find the good and tell about it because no matter the circumstance, the Lord is present and doing a good thing.
Joyfully,
Season Bowers