My boys love Connect Four these days.
We are actually playing on our second copy of this game. We owned a Connect Four a couple years ago when I thought it was a game I could successfully teach 4 and 6 year olds. At the time, however, they just liked making patterns instead of following rules. I let them have at it, and eventually, that led to new games of shooting yellow and red pieces at each other until they all disappeared.
But when my oldest said a few weeks ago that he wanted to play Connect Four and he was really good at it, I went to Walmart and bought the game a second time hoping that they were finally old enough to keep this one together.
Turns out they are, and they are good too! On Saturday, I played one of the twins a handful of games. I won the first two. In the third game, he set himself up with two openings. I couldn’t block both, and so he won.
He didn’t just win though…. the kid celebrated his win. He swayed his hips and moved his arms and did his version of a victory dance all while saying “I won! I beat mom! I won!” He wasn’t mean about it… he simply just celebrated the victory. And he deserved it – he made great moves. When he was done, he said with the upmost sincerity: “Maybe you’ll win next time, mom.”
I saw a tweet a couple days ago from Simone Biles that said “I’m sorry but I can’t believe I completed a double pike on vault.” People are celebrating this move everywhere, but so is she. She is celebrating her win. As well she should.
I think I often forget to celebrate the wins. I forget to rejoice in hard work paid off or something going right. In contrast, I tend to focus on the losses. I analyze them to death as well as beat myself up for them. I certainly learn from them as well, but maybe I can do that with a little less berating of myself.
So this morning my prayer for me and for you is that we may celebrate our wins and learn from our losses while always remembering God’s love for us doesn’t rely on either.
