Let's Join the Glad Club!

Most of us weren’t alive in 1913, but that was the year that Eleanor H. Porter published the book titled Pollyanna. If you’ve read or heard about this fictional story, you are aware of a young girl named Pollyanna, whose mother died when she was very young as did her church preacher father. Pollyanna became an orphan as a young girl, but it was a game of finding the good in all things her father taught her that made her life a blessing to many. Her optimism about life changed the whole community she lived in.

As the family was poor, one Christmas Pollyanna’s father requested a doll as a Christmas gift for her from the Ladies’ Aid Society. When the missionary barrel arrived that Christmas, instead of a doll, there was a pair of small crutches for Pollyanna. Her father convinced her to be glad about such a gift since she had no use for them. Thus began their future frequent exercise called the ‘Glad Game’.  As a result of this idea in the book, Glad Clubs sprung up all around the country.

A quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln was used in the Pollyanna book without reference. It was, "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.” Pollyanna certainly lived life looking for the good in the worst of situations. When her father died she moved in with her Aunt Polly who was a bit of a sour puss and was mean to her. As time went on, Pollyanna changed the attitude of the dispirited people in her aunt’s town, getting them to be optimistic in life during both good and bad times.

In the book, Pollyanna experienced things like being hit by a car and her legs being paralyzed. In that old glad game way her father taught her, her new found town friends gathered around her and helped her be happy that at least she still had her legs! This was the kind of optimism example that helped her change the people in Aunt Polly’s town as Pollyanna interacted with them.

As the story finishes out, Pollyanna’s optimism finally got to her Aunt Polly. The townspeople gathered around Pollyanna, she got therapy and was able to walk again. Aunt Polly married her old lover, Dr. Chilton and all became players of the Glad Game!

It’s a difficult task for us, but we should all start our own ‘Glad Clubs’ and play the Glad Game. In Proverbs 4:23 it tells us: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The name Pollyanna has become a word in our language. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as, “a person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything.” If you are that way, you are considered Pollyannaish. Some use the term as a negative by saying if one is super optimistic they are not real and they are being pollyannaish.

Isn’t it like that in our spiritual journeys? In viewing those who are seeking God in their lives in all things, many say they are weak. Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Seeking God for sustenance in life and thus looking for the good in life, however, is being Pollyannaish in the most wonderful way. Our belief in a loving creator God leads us to look for the good, as He is our keeper.

In Romans 8:26 St. Paul tells us, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The Gospel of John reinforces this in 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. AMEN.