What a day today has been! I got to connect my Dad and one of his heroes of the faith, Jim Hylton, over lunch. To hear the two of them share stories of God over a two-hour time period was amazing and encouraging!
Then, on the way home from lunch, I get a text from a close friend that her brother-in-law was found dead at his home. What a roller-coaster of emotions to feel in one day (not that I have anything on the emotions of my friends over the suffering of their tragic loss, for sure).
But it made me think, “Today is the day the LORD has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I am so incredibly guilty of complaining about the gift of today that the Father has given. When traffic isn’t the way I want it, when the coffee doesn’t taste just so, when the Dallas Cowboys blow an easy game… and I have the audacity to say, “I’m having a bad day.”
Then there are days like my friends are now going through. The death of a brother, father and son. How can we “rejoice and be glad” in the midst of such trials and suffering. Surely, that makes for a bad day worth complaining about.
Bad days, legitimate bad days, come and go. And that is ok. We grow through pain. We find the fortitude that the Father has equipped us with to make it through those days. But how many of us complain to the Father about illegitimate bad days? I know I do. I listed some of my most recent “bad days” above. How petty are we? That God has given us the gift of a day and we squander it and complain about it.

Today is the day that my Father, my provider, my sustainer has made, and I will choose to rejoice and be glad IN it.
Be grateful for the gift of a day. And choose to rejoice, be glad, and do something with it!