Lynn H. Blackburn



I love my Tervis tumbler.


It happened so fast, all I could do was pick up the pieces.

Literally.

You wouldn’t think an 8-month-old had hands that move at the speed of light. But mine does. I walked by the counter, and before I could say, gasp, yell “NO!” he had grabbed the rim of my Tervis tumbler and sent it crashing to the kitchen floor.

Tervis tumblers are supposed to be indestructible. They have a lifetime guarantee, but I’m afraid the company is going to lose money on me. My 3-year-old cracked my first tumbler on the store floor before we had plunked down the plastic to pay for it.

Now, my cup (which survived), lid (which did not), and six ounces of coffee mocked me from the hardwood floor, while another few ounces ran in caramel streams down the kitchen cabinets.

I was unhappy, annoyed. OK. Fine. I was ticked.

Not at Drew. He was just doing his best impression of an eight-month-old.

But I was ticked. The way I get ticked when my day goes off on an unpleasant tangent. In “Lynn’s Math” unplanned = unpleasant. Given that I have three children, you can imagine how often I struggle with unpleasant events.

I put Drew in his high chair and walked stomped to the paper towel holder.

And then it happened.

I remembered.

I remembered all those blog posts from October about renewing my mind.

I remembered all the planned blog posts for November about gratitude.

I remembered that pretty new journal where I’d begun to record things—big and little things—that I’m thankful for.

Gulp.

It’s hard to stay ticked when you’re trying to be thankful.

It’s hard to be in a bad mood when you choose to think about things that are true and lovely and excellent.

Which made me wonder . . . how many times am I in a bad mood for no reason other than that I choose to be? Being upset over spilled coffee may seem trivial. But how often do the trivial things throw my day into a tailspin that I never recover from?

I thought about this as I cleaned the floors and cabinets, made another cup of coffee, and added a new entry to my list of gifts God has given me.

#6 – Hardwood floors that are easy to clean up.

I’ve decided that nothing is too obvious to go on my list.

Because sometimes it’s the obvious to which I’m most oblivious.

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I’d like to challenge you to think about making your own list. My list is growing and I’ll be sharing random entries in blog posts this month. I was inspired to start my list after reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and I’ll be talking about her book on Thursday. I hope you’ll stop back by!