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I always feel guilty when I'm in a not-so-great mood because I like to think of myself as chronically super-sparkly.
I take myself to task on such feeling-grumpy occasions, reminding myself, or more like scolding myself that, come on, Janice, count all your many blessings, something you can do to exhaustion, girl.
There are so many of them. So very many.
For Pete's sake. Don't be such an ingrate.
That old hymn comes to mind -- "Count Your Blessings" written in 1897 by Johnson Oatman Jr. -- and I know it to be a practice worthy of embracing.
And yet here I am regrettably inclined at times to be human, go figure, and we humans, well, it doesn't take much for us sometimes to see the glass as only a fourth of the way full, not even at the half-way mark. Maybe even bone dry on some days.
Every day we make a choice. Actually, every moment we make a choice to be one way or not.
Grumpy or not grumpy.
Super-sparkly or not.
Tallying our blessings or wondering where they're hiding at the moment.
Can you imagine having all these sorts of thoughts racing through your mind when you're simply washing your hands in the restroom at work?
Well, it happens, I'm here today to tell you.
I was drying my hands and happened to glance in the mirror, my focus directed to the reflection of the costume jewelry I was wearing that day -- a pair of cross earrings and a matching cross necklace. A big cross on a long necklace.
I wear that jewelry set a good bit just because I like it, and it seems to go with everything.
But on this particular day not so long ago, they came with a visual message in the mirror I wasn't expecting but needed.
Are you going to be cross or are you going to be the cross, Janice?
The question settled right smack dab in my head, firmly planting itself there for consideration/conviction.
Ever have the feeling that God is trying to get a message "a-cross" to you?
Are you going to be grumpy and cross or are you going to be as the cross allows me to be -- a sinner saved by grace, a person full of hope, a recipient of grace I don't deserve but need in the grumpiest of times, a benefactor of God's love and forgiveness?
The rest of that work day I fingered the cross necklace from time to time.
And I thought about a lot of things, mainly what the cross means to me, including the free gift of salvation that none of us deserves but have available to us all just the same.
I think I wear that cross necklace because of its reassurance factor.
I appreciate the sight of it the same way I appreciate the cross visuals I see most every day.
That includes on my early morning drive in to the office the illuminated red cross at Two Ridges Presbyterian Church in Wintersville.
And how beautiful it is from the newsroom window when the sky lights up behind St. Peter’s Church in downtown Steubenville, the cross there as a reminder of beauty as well, the beauty of God's love for us.
I don't know where your heart is this Easter morning or if you believe the simple message of salvation, but I hope you do. Happy Easter.