The Glad Game

When my daughters were young, one of our favorite movies was Pollyanna, the 1960 Hayley Mills version. It is based on a book written in 1913 about a girl who was orphaned at a young age and had to come live with a very dour but wealthy aunt. Pollyanna had been taught by her missionary father to always look for something good in every situation. She called this "the glad game". Her aunt was critical of this game and attitude and, in essence, told Pollyanna her optimism had nothing to do with reality. Actually, the term, 'pollyanna', has come to mean an excessively or blindly optimistic person or as being unreasonably or illogically optimistic.

Long before Eleanor H. Porter wrote Pollyanna, God inspired writers throughout the Bible to issue imperatives about being glad and rejoicing in all situations. Psalm 32:11 tells us to "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart." Paul writes in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice!" James instructs his readers to, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

Today we can play the glad game with confidence, knowing that we are not being excessively, blindly, unreasonably, or illogically optimistic, but that we are obeying biblical commands to be glad and rejoice. As believers, we can do this because we know the truth of Romans 8:28, "...that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."