Here is our evening routine: If I haven’t written the Catch in the morning, I help get Chandler down and then head to my office to write. Tonight things were rolling along as expected—even a little ahead of the game—when my wife came up with the dreaded words: “Tea party!”
Marti doesn’t like routine. Unlike me, she finds no comfort in it. She wants action. If every moment of every day were filled with intensity and discovery, she would be a happy camper. I get exhausted just thinking about what energizes her.
A tea party, when my two older children were more Chandler’s age, was usually late at night when they should be asleep, so they always thought they were getting away with something.
It starts with bringing out a miniature tea set suited more for dolls than for humans (it would take two of these cups to fill a thimble). Then it’s about making tea, finding some accompaniment to go with it from the pantry, and sitting down around a small table delicately sipping and talking. And I must say, if my memory serves me well, they talked up a storm.
So tonight with Chandler, I’m finding the late clandestine hour was having the same effect on him, and Marti, taking advantage of the little opening in his heart, brought up my mother, whom Chandler only met once before she died, but there was something magical in that meeting.
“Do you know how your Grandmother Leta started each day?” Marti asked, most certainly seeking to prepare us all for the next day.
“How?” came Chandler’s reply.
“By announcing: ‘this is the day that the Lord has made; rejoice and be glad! Do you know what ‘rejoice’ means, Chandler?”
“Awesome!” he replied bringing a smile to his parents’ faces. My anxiety over the lateness of the hour is starting to diminish.
“And what about ‘glad?'” I ask this one. “What does it mean to be glad?”
“Cool!” came his answer, and he punctuated it with a little arm thrust when he said it. I don’t think I could come up with a better explanation if I tried.
So there you have our “tankful” thought for the day: “This is the day that the Lord has made; and how AWESOME and COOL is that?”
John Fischer The Catch 
Love it…awesome and cool indeed! Thanks Chandler!
My mom said that verse every morning. Thanks for bringing an up-to-date paraphrase to it, and bringing a smile of a happy memory of my mom who moved to heaven last August.
Now John, that is a memory that will last a long time, and I agree awesome & cool are just that!
I can remember having tea parties with my three daughters and I even have a picture my wife Pat took of me pouring the tea in those little miniature cups. The openness and sharing around a little tea party like the ones I remember or the ones you brought up today in your Catch will be cherished forever – Thank God for those precious times!
You have such a great way of seeing amazing things in such everyday events. I would’ve missed the connection completely if I was sitting in on your tea party. Thanks for sharing your gift with us.
I think the world would be in a much better place if each of us started our days that way, and then truly lived out each day believing it!
Dear cool writer John —
Most important: I salute Chandler for the fabulous new synonyms for “rejoice” and “glad”. I love the ways kids pray!
Second: When I saw the column’s subject line, “Tea Party”, I got a little nervous. The political entity known as the “Tea Party” scares me. I find more and more non-Christians figure that I’m at least a conservative Republican if not a “Tea Party” booster — until I tell them I’m neither. More and more, it seems, being a Christian is associated with conservatism, both theological and political. I’m not a conservative and I’m not a liberal. I’m a centrist, a moderate, and a mainline Protestant (as opposed to evangelical). When I tell them so, I find some people look…surprised.
So you can imagine how delighted I was to find that your piece was about…tea parties. Even better, it reminded me that Jesus often asked us to be like little children. I think you and Marti and Chandler have persuaded me to take a deep breath and have more tea parties ! God bless your family and the wonder-filled work you do!
This is great. It never occurred to me but of course it would be on many people’s minds. How cool to have a tea party without any political ramifications.
Awesome and cool–couldn’t have said it any better. Please thank Chandler for helping us to see this verse in a new way. And thanks to you for sharing it with us!