This morning a beautiful little redhead made her way downstairs looking like she had lost her best friend. This wee little girl has had several disappointments in the last few days. We were supposed to get new furniture delivered, then the house flooded. We always put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but with the imminent repairs, we will have to put our decorating on hold for an undetermined amount of time. And my sister was supposed to come for Thanksgiving but called last night to say that her boss (the horrible killer of dreams) decided everyone had to work on Black Friday. My sweet baby was really looking forward to seeing her aunt and this was just the last straw! Last night she just bawled like a baby and apparently, this morning, the disappointment and sadness was still very present in her little heart.
Knowing that today was going to be difficult for her, I made her favorite breakfast: homemade waffles with hot syrup, as much bacon as she wanted and chocolate milk (out of the jug). But nothing could dry up the tears and put a smile on that beautiful face. As I was patiently trying to get her to talk, she began to rant. About everything! And about how unfair it was. Then she started to cry and said "Why can't Aunt D come? and why did the house have to flood and why does this have to happen right before Christmas?" And that's when I saw an opening. I said to her "well, we can be grateful it WASN'T Christmas time. Thankful that we didn't have the tree up and presents around it. Can you imagine how awful that would have been?" Nothing. I got nothing out of her. She was not buying my Pollyanna Thankful routine. Then I remembered the verse in the Bible that says "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine" so I decided to do one of the things I am GREAT at! Act like an idiot and make her laugh. I tried jokes - no dice. I tried tickling - if looks could kill. Before I knew it, there I was in the kitchen, wearing my sweats and furry socks, dancing around like a fool...dancing like no one was watching and the next thing I knew, I heard a slight chuckle and looked over at her. She had her hands covering her mouth so tightly, trying not to laugh at me. It was AWESOME! I danced even more and started singing in my most terrible voice and before she or I knew what was happening, she could not contain her laughter. It was a great moment between us and a great lesson.
As adults, we don't always like it when things do not go according to plan. We want to complain, some people actually do, but many people recognize the futility of that and just do what needs to be done. However, young children aren't always capable of seeing the bright side of a situation or the fact that getting really upset or angry is not going to change anything. These are lessons that we as parents are responsible for teaching them. Show them there are still reasons to be grateful, even when they aren't very apparent. Show them there are reasons to smile, even when it feels like everything is falling apart. Teach them to count their blessings - even if in that moment, they seem few. Now...I need to get off here. I promised a certain little girl to do some baking with her.
May you all find many reasons to be Thankful this week and may you have a smile in your heart! Even if it means you have to dance like a fool to find it! :)
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