How to have a good day...

Have you ever read an article or a book and had a word or phrase kinda jump out at you? It happens to me all of the time. A word will seem to leap in my spirit and remain with me for days. It happened to me again the other day as I was reading a magazine.

In it was an interview with Ashley Judd, actress and activist, and a short comment about speaking words of appreciation. And there it was…'the leaping word'…appreciation. Ms. Judd said that she and her husband try every day to say something, be it big or small, to show appreciation.

Appreciation is gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, acknowledgment, favorable or grateful recognition. Who doesn’t like to receive it, but how often in our busy, and sometimes hectic routine do we think to extend it?

This goes beyond the random acts of kindness we show to strangers…letting someone with two items cut in the grocery line ahead of us…buying coffee for the next three people who come through a cafeteria or fast food drive-thru line, and they don’t know you did it…cleaning the snow off the car next to you in the parking lot at work before they come out and see you doing it.

What Ms. Judd was speaking about, and what I am ineptly trying to convey is the joy of speaking a word of appreciation to those closest to us…family, friends, church family, co-workers. Appreciating those nearest and dearest to our hearts may seem unnecessary, for surely they know we are grateful…or so we think. But I can assure you, they can’t read our minds.

It caused me to think of the little things that people do for me on a consistent basis, and wonder how often I have acknowledged it. For example, my 13 year old nephew has always taken his plate, be it a meal or snack, to the sink and rinsed it off…always. It’s a little thing, eh? But it’s the little things that can matter the most.

And so today, while driving to church service, I tried it out. Reaching over and patting my mother’s hand, I said, “Mom, I appreciate how you hold things together for us…” It took a few seconds of my time, but pleased her to hear it…and you know what? It made me feel good, too.

Appreciating the small things adds value to our lives. It increases our heart rate…I don’t mean the organ that beats between 70 and 100 beats per minute. I mean the heart that goes deeper than that…our inner most beings. Speaking appreciation for a deed done or a word spoken in due season enhances the lives of the giver and the receiver.

So let me encourage you today…if things haven’t quite gone your way…if the kids have been on the wild…if the dog tore up your favorite slippers…if the roast burned while you where at church, think on the little things.

At least once a day learn to speak a word of appreciation, if for no other reason than someone turned the radio down so you could better hear on the phone. Tell your son you appreciate that he hung up his coat, or that he didn’t leave his wet towel on the bathroom floor. Thank your Sunday School teacher for getting up early on a cold Sunday morning and delivering a good word from the Word.

See if appreciating the little, ordinary, every day things doesn’t make you feel better and make your day a little brighter…not to mention the joy it will bring to the hearer.

Have a good day every day...you deserve it!!