Bad Day Do Over
Have you ever had a really bad day? All of your best intentions seem to have fallen apart. By the end of the day, you just want to crawl into bed and be done with this day.
I work in with three year old preschoolers in a private school. A behavior chart is posted on the front wall and it’s labeled with the childrens’ names. Every morning they start out with a green smiley face. But underneath the green smiley face is a yellow face that’s not so happy. And the face that’s beneath that one is red. It has a sad face on it.
If a child is consistently misbehaving despite warnings, they lose their smile. That’s not a good thing and they know that. If they continue and don’t change their behavior, they progress to a yellow face. If they still persist, it results in a red unhappy face and a note goes home to mom and dad.
I’m very happy to report that this very rarely happens.
As a Christian, there have been days when I’ve messed up. These times are often dictated by:
- My emotions
- My circumstances
- Other people and their responses
I hate when that happens. People will often say something like “I’m only human”. And yes, that is very true.
However, as Christians we have the power of the Holy Spirit within to make faith decisions and responses. We can put off our old way of thinking and put on the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:12 “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have received the mind of Christ.”
We can quench God’s Spirit by making choices based on emotions. If we want our behavior to change we have to make the choice to renew our minds. How do we do this?
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
So before you get to the point of a yellow or a red face, stop and recognize what’s going on. Pray about it and see what God’s Word says about your situation.
And never forget that we get to start over each day.
Lamentations 3:22-23 “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Blessings and love,
My hubby just had knee replacement surgery and they use a similiar “smiley” face chart for pain levels. Big sunny yellow smiley is “I feel great” and at the other end is the bright red, “It hurts really, really bad” with downturned mouth and tears. That is a 9-10 on pain scale. It really helps me since we came home to know how my hubby feels since we have a very different tolerance for pain.
I like the correlation between the smiley faces and walking with the Lord. Before my deafness at 39, I was assistant primary Sunday School teacher. We did not have smiley face charts back then, used “gold star” charts, but same concept. Gold was best, silver next and then progressed down to red being “not in a good mood today”. I loved working with preschool children. Their minds are so quick and they come out with the most delightful insights. I still have two grands that are in their preschool years so still can enjoy that age. Living in Clearwater and not Arizona was quite a change. Do you miss Florida? I like the verses you shared. For me personally what alters my mood is praising HIM in song, even if I do it silently in my head. I also love to be in the car with a/c on, windows closed and able to sing praises as loud as I want. I have a strong stubborn will which can be excellent at times, but when I know I am out of HIS favor by my attitude, the humanness digs in and I have found that reading scripture or repeating verses at this time only seems to make me more stubborn. I found that once I sing praises, “How Great Thou Art”, and simple childrens’s songs of long ago, “The Cross Before me, the world behind me”, are favorites, always break down my defiance and usually bring me to tears because I truly don’t enjoy separation from my Lord and Saviour. Excellent post. Thank you for stopping by my blog. Have a beautiful, blessed day.
Lynn
Lynn
I needed these scriptures in a bad way today. Thank you for this great post!
I really needed that Romans 12:2 verse. That goes along with what my hubby and I have been talking about and that makes it about as simple and clear as it can be.
Verry good post. Thank you.
I love how you also reminded us that each day we get to start over! Isn’t it wonderful to get that green smiley face each morning?
Blessings, Joan
This is just what I needed!
You’re right Debbie! We can’t trust our feelings or emotions, but we must decide to follow God’s Word.
So funny that you are sharing about the faces. My daughter just started Kindergarten and each member of her class has a BEAR. Green, then yellow, then red, then purple. Purple=principal! She reports each flipped bear to me on the way home (ha).
Bless you Sister!
Beth
Maybe we should have these marvelous smiley faces in our office 🙂
Unfortunately I make many decisions on my emotions. I need to thing before acting. Thank you for the reminder, Debbie.
Great post, Debbie. I agree with Iris, maybe we need some smiley faces at home or work for us! They are a great reminder. Your post goes along with what has been on my heart to post for mine later in the week.
Have a good day.
Bethany
I wonder what God’s bulletin board looks like….I sure hope mine has a green face! This was a great devotion Debbie!
I’m doing some “catch-up reading” this morning. Since it’s the first day of school here in our area, this put a smile on my face! My grandkids are always glad to tell me they got “green face”!
Thanks for sharing such a sweet Word from HIM. Who loves us all so much!!! 😉
Blessings!!!
I loved the article! Thank you. I was just online googling “behavior charts”. My children go to daycare and they have them there and seem to be on their best behavior, but at home, we hadnt quite found the perfect method of encouraging them to behave. The chart is great and I think it will work wonderfully. Then your article topped it off nicely. I needed to hear that encouragement today. Thank you again for your post. Blessings! <3
Where did you find the blue thing to hold the smiley faces in?
Love this idea!
You can find them at Lakeshore Learning, a teacher supply store. They are also online: https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/