Anna at Swimming Lessons!!







It’s All In What You Call It

So, last night Christy was getting dinner ready while I was holding Jack and we were all dancing to the music playing in the kitchen. The girls were quietly playing with their toys when something happened that changed everything... All of a sudden Anna shouted, “Oh No! Lizzie’s throwing up!” Norah gasped and Christy ran out of the kitchen into the girls’ bedroom after answering back, “Oh No!” Within the space of two seconds, I was left standing in the kitchen bewildered and asking Jack, “Who is Lizzie?”

Lizzie, it turns out, is a Lizard... not a real lizard, but a toy. You see, for Christmas this year, Anna wanted these things called “Littlest Petshop” which are tiny, plastic, bobble-headed animals with humongous eyeballs. She has a bunch of them now, which means that everyday after school we have an NFL Draft in our living room as Anna and Norah decide how they are going to divvy up the animals. Then all the Littlest Petshops spend the rest of the afternoon doing very un-NFL types of things like going to fake dinner parties and Ballet classes. Christy, of course knew exactly who Lizzie was, and helped the girls nurse the giant-headed lizard back to perfect health just in time to head out to the fake park for a fake walk.

I love how the girls name all of their toys. Sometimes the names are obvious, like Lizzie the Lizard and sometimes they are random, like Norah’s baby doll named “Bottle.” Sometimes the names are really girly and then sometimes they are just really cool names. But, there’s something in the naming that changes the game. Calling that green piece of plastic a name ups the ante and makes it more real. It changes the way you look at it, to call it something.

Praise is like that. An attitude of praise for the Lord can change everything about the way you see your day. Psalm 92 says, “It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands.”

I love how he talks about proclaiming God’s love and faithfulness over the two extreme ends of the day. It’s like a determination to praise all day long. What if you did that as an experiment? Wake up one day and say out loud, “I am proclaiming right now that everything that will happen to me for the rest of this day is coming straight from God’s hand because He’s in control of everything and He loves me. I am calling everything for the rest of this day, love... in all that happens today, He is loving me.” Then, when you’re about to go to bed at night, lay your head down on your pillow and reflect by saying out loud, “He was faithful! He did it! I was right! All day long God loved me. Everything He did was part of His faithful love.”

What if you did that? What if you praised on purpose, calling your days examples of His love and faithfulness? I am willing to bet that it could revolutionize your days and change the way you see everything! As the Psalmist said, “It is good to praise the LORD.”