Smile

Seeing this picture of my daughter smiling made me smile too!  Sometimes I look at my children and long for the freedom to just laugh and smile all the time.  They are so joyful.  There is a lot of power in a smile.  I once heard that the most successful people in the world are perpetual smilers!  Not sure if that is completely true, but I like it! (and it assures me that my children will be very successful!)  I’ve also been hearing again about the power of a smile through a parenting class I’m taking.  Smiling at our children can give them so much more than a funny face to look at.  It gives them peace, assurance, confidence, joy, security, and the transforming truth that “mom delights in me.”  Smiles are powerful.  We can smile our children out of a bad mood, and we can smile ourselves into a good mood!  Our words are delivered much differently when done with a smile.  Have you ever gotten that one magical checker at the grocery store that is beaming like they just won a million dollars?  It's amazing how much I smile when talking to someone who is smiling at me!  It's contagious.  I confess that since my babies hit 2 ½ , my smile has been slowly diminishing.  In my class, our teacher said we need to practice smiling.  This sounds so silly, but honestly, I need to practice!  I know that true joy comes from knowing Jesus.  I know that when my life is filled with true joy, smiles come more easily.  So as I practice smiling, I’m praying that God would once again “restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”  Psalm 51:12  Now go smile at someone!