Since beginning our new Special Day tradition, we’ve now gotten to do Dutch Day and Anniversary Day. For Dutch day, it was so fun to see how God coordinated everything. It was a busy Sunday, and we’d already had lunch plans that didn’t necessarily include anything special for Dutch. But it was so fun because this other couple surprised Dutch by getting him a new little Lego set, which he got to open after lunch. Then, they showed him their Lego room which is filled–no joke–with tens of thousands of legos, from floor to ceiling and everywhere in between. Castles, buildings, scenes, towns. Amazing. Dutch was so awed and inspired that we came home, got out the Legos, and he and Jeff played all afternoon. Even though I couldn’t necessarily do anything that special for him, for all he knew the whole day was set up like a Lego-loving dream come true. Thank you, God!
For our anniversary day we celebrated 89 months of marriage! It was also a busy Sunday, and while circumstances kept us from going out on a date, we planned a very special date to celebrate Jeff’s graduation from seminary next Tuesday! 5 1/2 years we’ve been plugging away at seminary and he has one week left! So we’re redeeming a very generous gift certificate that we were given to a fancy restaurant and enjoying a special date next week. Sometimes planning a date is almost as much fun as going on it–so for our 89th anniversary we planned out a date and an upcoming family vacation. Oh, and Jeff bought me a Starbucks card… that always helps too. 🙂
So yada, yada, details, right? What all this has shown me is the value of celebration. Just as God commanded the children of Israel to periodically hold feasts and gatherings and celebrations, it is healthy for us to learn to periodically celebrate the big things and little things in life. I’ve been a major dud in this department. When every day is the same it’s not long before the family’s morale is dangerously low. There is so much value in little celebrations to bring little dots of memorable moments to this long line of daily life that can tend toward monotony. Tonight I made a yummy salmon dinner (our favorite). The occasion–we’re celebrating a Happy Monday! Why not? Somehow that made dinner seem special.
So let’s sprinkle our lives with little doses of joyful celebration, amen? For This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24