Be Glad

Pollyanna, a book Eleanor H. Porter published way back in 1913, is about a young girl who learns to look for the good in everything. Whenever something happened that troubled, upset, or worried her, she looked for some beneficial aspect of the situation and said she was glad about that good part. This habit made her a happier, more contented person. Christmas is as good a time as any to consider taking a figurative page out of her book.

Holidays are a time when we exchange news with family, longtime friends as well as new friends. Sometimes the news is unhappy, sometimes the news is of a routine nature, but sometimes the news is of a glorious triumph or a remarkable experience which releases emotions we don’t want to confront. We know we should feel glad for the bearer of good news, but, instead, we find a nasty little touch of jealousy, or even a good size helping of envy overcomes us. Why them and not me? What to do with these perfectly natural responses. The faster we can turn to God to help us rejoice with whoever for whatever, the better. When we ask for God’s attitude about the good things that occur in other’s lives, our own lives are enriched with double the gladness. We can experience great heartfuls of genuine gladness over other peope’s blessings which somehow in a mysterious way multiplies the gladness in our heart. When we can rejoice for others, we collect the riches of joy greater than we thought possible. It makes sense, that when God helps us rejoice for others, we gain twice the blessings.