My friend Shannon....

This morning as I drove into Franklin, it was very easy to sing God's praises. On the heels of an AMAZING blessing, it is EASY to be grateful, positive, chipper. Then all of a sudden the face of my dear friend Shannon popped into my head, and I felt a bit of conviction twinge in my heart. See Shannon, my dear Shannon, she can call me excited about her brand new job shoveling elephant poop at the zoo. Shannon can be positive about anything. She can make lemonade out of her house burning down or her arm falling off. She is the QUINTESSENTIAL cheerleader... completely adept at cheering VORACIOUSLY for her team all the way through the fourth quarter when they are down 127 - 0. She can do it! Her positive little face made me wince.

Sure it's easy to be that positive when something good just happened to me, but am I that positive when the bad stuff happens? Typically I can do a pretty good job of keeping my chin up during hard stuff, but I want more. I want my HEART to wear a Shannon smile. I want my HEART to rejoice in having a job shoveling elephant poop!

Life is going to give you lemon drops and lemons... The challenge my dear friends is to face BOTH with joy in your heart and praise on your lips. Yesterday, as we were taking a walk, AFTER we had been JUST given a HUGE blessing, God bestowed another small one on us. As we passed a house in our cul de sac, the owner pointed to a bike in his front yard and said, "We're getting rid of that bike. If you know anyone who wants it....." We now have a bike for both of the adults in our family! Noah looked at me and said, "Mom, God sure loves us hey?" I replied, "Yeah, He sure does, Noah. BUT He loves us just as much when we're suffering."

He is not any less good when bad things happen to us. He doesn't love us any less when the rain is falling. So I for one am purposing in my heart to pull out my cheerleader smile ALL the time and to work HARD to get that smile to reach all the way to my heart during the worst of the storms.