Finding the silver box.

My kids are home today due to "inclement weather" as the school says. The first snow day of the year is always met with a thrill and lots of wonder. My kids are a little sad that there isn't enough snow to play in, but we are having fun playing inside. Secretly, I am hoping that we have a very short winter with lots of sunshine.

Last winter we had 578 snow days and I was so OVER IT. The bleakness of last winter left its mark on me. My heart mirrored the weather outside.

DARK BLEAK LONELY ISOLATED MOODY COLD HARD GRAY

The weather cleared up and changed long before my heart did. It is something that I am afraid of as the gray days stack up. Will I fall back into the pit? Or, will I make different choices this season to guard my heart against the cold lonely days?

(Here is where a gifted writer would know how to transition those thoughts into cleaning out the underwear drawer. Just go with me in my clumsy attempt to make this relevant.)

I have already been pretty open about how the mundane of life is sucking the joy out of my heart and today is no different. Even though the kids are home there is some balance between playing and working. It is something I wrestle with...daily.

Anyway, the kids were playing Wii (and they were actually getting along)so I took that time to do some work. I wasn't really planning to clean my underwear drawer but so glad I did. There was a sweet surprise waiting for me at the bottom.

At a Christmas tea several years ago, an older woman from our church wanted to share something with us that she had read and found encouraging. Not a woman used to the spotlight, her voice and hands shook as she read from the book "Silver Boxes" by Florence Littauer. A story about encouragement.

While speaking to young children, Mrs. Littauer realized the concept of her book, "...when our words come out they should be like 'little presents all wrapped up to be given away.' The idea of 'presents' brightened them all up, and one precious little girl stood up, stepped into the aisle and said loudly to everyone, 'What she means is that our words should be like little silver boxes with bows on top!' Florence said, 'What a beautiful thought! Our words should be gifts to each other, little silver boxes with bows on top.'"

Our sweet church lady wanted to give each one of us a Silver Box to take home and tuck away. She had purchased beautiful silver boxes and wrapped bows around each one. Lovingly she laid out pieces of paper for each woman there. We walked around the table and wrote an encouraging thought or compliment to fill the boxes of each lady.

I was a different person then. I am not sure I saw the purpose of this exercise. I remember just wanting to hurry and write down compliments so I could get back to laughing with my friend.

I must have come home that night and tucked my silver box away in my underwear drawer and completely forgotten about it.

Fast forward to today. A women raw and fearful about falling back into the winter heart from last year. A woman that has been weathered by the storms of life. A woman who desperately needs affirmation. A woman who has a God that can turn the mundane into something really special.

Isn't it wonderful when God shows up?

Inside my silver box were the sweetest words any woman can read.

"kind, you are very smart (huh??), warm fuzzy, you have a sweet smile, great mom, kindred spirit, encourager, sister, friend, sweet spirit, loving mommy, giving, loving, fun, elegant (ha!), mischievous"

Words I wouldn't have said about myself.

Words I needed to hear.

Words that need to take root.

Words I need to believe.

God knew when I needed to find that box. He knew that those words would mean something to me now as I fight the winter heart.

Sweet words like sunshine to break up the COLD AND LONELY.

Ephesians 4:29 You must stop letting any bad words pass your lips, but only words that are good for building up as the occasion demands, so that they will result in spiritual blessing to the hearers.