Relly

At Group, as with any company that puts out products to customers, we sometimes get complaints. And when we get them, some people tend to be overly negative and super nit-picky. I mean really stupid little details that effect nothing, and they just blow it up to be this huge deal. We get a lot of great feedback that's critical but kindly worded with helpful things we could improve, and that's great. But when we get those nit-picky negative Nellies who just seem to hate everything, it really frustrates me.

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, we had the Fun Shop for 5th graders at Group. And as I also mentioned, it did NOT go perfectly. We ran out of pizza and had to rush to get more. Lunch ran short. There was mass confusion at one point. Lots to complain about, really.

But these 5th graders were so positive in their evaluations. Some of them mentioned they wished there was more time for the main part of the event (which was why lunch ran short), or that they wish there was more pizza, but even those who mentioned it had other glowing reviews all over their evaluations. They clearly didn't let the glitches spoil their day. And the majority said they wouldn't change anything about the day, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun (yep, at least that many o's), they had a "relly" fun time, and it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! (With Peanut-like exclamation points.)

I mentioned this to a friend today and I said I wished all our customers were 5th graders. They were so encouraging, even in their suggestions for improvement. And how many adults do you know that would put 30 o's at the end of the word "so"?

My friend asked rhetorically, "I wonder when we lose that enthusiasm." Somewhere between 5th grade and adulthood, we drop some o's off of our sooooo's. We lose a few exclamation points. Things aren't "relly fun" anymore. I think maybe that's one reason Jesus wanted us to become more like children. They have such a zeal and enthusiasm for life. They don't sweat the small mistakes of an overall great day. (And if they get out of school, it's pretty much going to be a great day.)

Maybe the question isn't "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" but rather, "Are you as happy as a 5th grader?"