A Horrible Day....or was it?

One of the girls brought home a book from school this week, oh a classic!  I was excited to read it with them as it had been years but the phrase, "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day", just seemed to stick in my head! Although I couldn't recall all the details I snuggled in with them for a treat.

In case you aren't familiar, brief summery: Boy wakes up with something in his hair, determines the day is going to be "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" and proceeded to view the rest of the day and all the events through this lens, thus, proving his point.  I was hoping that there was a light at the end of the tunnel in someway that perhaps I had forgotten, yet it was not there.  

Hmmmmm, I closed the book declaring that this was an awful way to think and explained why to my listening girls.  We then proceeded to "read" the book again, instead of this time refraining every page to look at if from a positive perspective or something to be thankful for.  After a few examples, they were able to join in on this as well.

Mindset....it's such a powerful thing!  How are we teaching our children that this is OK (well I know the actually "teaching" at my children's school is more of a "growth mindset").  It's so subtle, though, is it not?  How the enemy wants to steal our joy, wants to make us ungrateful, to focus on the negative and pulls us away from all the blessings that the Lord has and wants to give us!  Take it back!  Take back those lies and denounce them for what they are and turn them into thanks.  That's been my attempted practice and that has been our talk of the house recently.  

I was very encouraged by a statement from Zoe a few days after this discussion.  After picking her up from car pool, she shared a couple of things she was really disappointed about that day but then there was a BUT....but then she told me of a couple of things that she was really happy about and how it was still a good day.  Ahhh, it is sinking in!  Practice, practice, practice.  May we continue to count our thanks and teach our littles to do the same!