Tag: #holidays

Tricky-Tricky

If you haven’t figured it out by now, our family really likes to enjoy most holidays. Angela is super creative, and always seems to have some fun little ways we can make a holiday enjoyable for the boys.

Now, April Fool’s Day may not be the biggest holiday on the calendar, but you can bet your bottom dollar that we are going to prank each other plenty on that day. In fact, we enjoyed it so much this year that, as we put the boys to bed that night, they asked if we could extend it and make it April Fool’s Week. We gladly obliged, and the shenanigans began.

Toward the end of day 2, Alex had gotten Angela pretty good once or twice, and she had promised to get him back. His mind began swirling with ways she might try to prank him. As the boys got into bed, Alex kept looking all over trying to see how she was going to get him. She told him, “Oh, it may not be tonight. You don’t know when it’s going to be.” He could hardly stand it.

Later, she revealed to me that she didn’t have a prank set up. The prank was that she was trying to make him think she had one planned. Thus, he would go around the rest of the week looking under every cover and around every corner trying to avoid being pranked… all the while not knowing that WAS the prank.

Kind of reminds me how the ol’ devil works on us. He tries to trick us into thinking that he can do something to us, when in reality he has no authority or power over us unless we give it to him. He was defeated by God when God kicked him out of Heaven after a failed coup. He was defeated at the Cross when Jesus died for our sins, and at the Tomb when Jesus rose from the dead, sealing victory for us over death, hell, and the grave.

So the next time the devil threatens that he is going to get you, don’t sweat it. Ignore him. He’s trying to make you think he’s got something planned that is going to take you out, but he doesn’t… because he can’t! His plan is simply to make you think he can and thereby cause you to worry and fret, giving into fear so that he can manipulate you. Just look that ol’ liar in the eyes, and tell him to bring it! He’ll skulk away like the trickster he is, and you will chalk up another tally mark in God’s victory column.

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My first memory in life is my fourth birthday.  I don’t know why it was the first.  But I suspect it might have been the impetus for my love of celebrating.  I LOVE to celebrate!  Birthdays, anniversaries, victories… I’ll celebrate pretty much anything. In fact, I recently discovered a fun website with unique and bizarre holidays.  For example, July is… (Cue Kool and The Gang…)

– National Blueberry Month

– National Anti-Boredom Month

– National Cell Phone Courtesy Month

– National Hot Dog Month

– National Ice Cream Month

and…

– National Picnic Month

That’s a lot to celebrate in just 31 days.  I personally choose to just primarily focus on National Ice Cream Month.  The rest will take care of themselves, I’m sure.

By the way, today specifically is National Culinarians Day, as well as National Thread The Needle Day.  These are like celebrations within celebrations.  Maybe you can figure out how to walk the thin line of perfecting blueberry and hot dog ice cream to take on a picnic with your phone on silent today so that you won’t be bored.

The thing is, there is some odd holiday on every day of the year.  In other words, someone somewhere chose to celebrate something, and made a big enough issue out of their celebrating that others took notice.

Every day presents us with the opportunity to celebrate or be sour.  For example, July 3rd-August 11th are known as “The Dog Days of Summer.”  For those of us who live in the Deep South, we can either bellyache about our clothes becoming instantly damp from humidity and sweat the moment we walk outside… orrrrrrrrr…. We can remember that it’s National Ice Cream Month, and let the heat motivate us to celebrate.

The Apostle Paul encouraged people in his day to give thanks in everything… not because every situation is totally enjoyable, but because Jesus took our punishment so we could be free and be in God’s family forever.

I want to be a person who celebrates.  I want to celebrate people.  I want to celebrate accomplishments… big or small.  I want to celebrate blessings when I am surrounded by challenges.  I choose to be a person who celebrates.

There is always something for which to be thankful… something to celebrate.  You and I get to choose which emoji we will select for every situation.  My encouragement to you today is to choose to celebrate regardless of “the Dog Days of Summer” or any other challenge.  I mean, after all, it’s National Ice Cream Month!

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