Last night I rephrased my question when inquiring.
"Sis, tell me one thing God blessed you with today". Long pause. I go on, "It doesn't have to be big, just something that happened and you knew it was God working. A blessing. Did you have ANYYYYYYYY (yes, that is a mom prompting!) blessings today?" She looks up at me, stares, makes a funny face and then replies. "well yeah I did have a blessing today. When Kate was being all bossy telling me I couldn't be in the movie she wants to make I got mad. My feelings were hurt because she is so bossy and always tells everyone what she wants and never asks us how we feel" I look at her. "OK. What was the blessing?"
"Mom, the blessing was that I told Kate I'm not gonna play with her any more because she is so bossy and she is always hurting my feelings. I walked off and went over to my real friends and told them what happened. The blessing mom (in that why don't you get it tone)is that I didn't get in trouble for telling Kate how I really felt! Because that would have got me in trouble."
I'm speechless.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled"
Matthew 5:6
Looking over at her and the seriousness in her little situation I smile and say "Good for you sis! Way to find the blessings in a yucky situation". In reality I'm thinking REALLY????
And then I think it over. How many times have I said "Praise God" because I'm looking for a receipt or a note? Or "Praise God" because I thought I'd misplaced something to find it right where I'd left it. Some might look (oh and they do!) at me like I am nuts. Asking silently, really... praising God for finding a note? It really is small potatoes, but in my world it is a BIG blessing. I need to keep that in perspective when having conversations with my nine year old daughter. What is BIG in her little world, is truly BIG. Just because I don't see the magnitude of not telling Kate how she really feels (SO glad she didn't!), doesn't mean it wasn't a big blessing in her world. GOD IS GOOD..... ALL THE TIME!