Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Judith Viorst wrote a popular children’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It’s about a little boy whose day starts out bad and goes downhill from there. He gets gum in his hair and gets his sweater wet in the sink and he trips over his skateboard and doesn’t get a prize in his cereal box and that’s all before breakfast! He could tell right away that it was going to be a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY. Then he goes to school and his teacher doesn’t like his drawing of an invisible castle, he doesn’t get a dessert in his lunch bag and his best friend doesn’t want to be his best friend anymore. And after school his mom buys him plain white sneakers instead of the ones with red and blue racing stripes, his dentist finds a cavity in his tooth, there are lima beans for dinner, and he gets soap in his eyes when he takes his evening bath. In frustration, he finally says, "I think I’ll move to Australia." If you’re like me you can relate to this story because we all have had days like Alexander, days when people treat us unfairly and nothing works out the way we want it to and by the time we fight our way home through bumper to bumper traffic we’re just plain mad. Well, chapter four of today’s text begins with Jonah thinking he has just experienced one of those days and Jonah was angry, but not at things or even people. No, he was mad at God.
From a sermon by Travis Markes, The Pouting Prophet, 11/10/2009