A SMALL VACATION

A SMALL VACATION

Peanut is practicing his smile. When we first rescued him, he had no smile. He was starving and scared. It took 4 ½ years before he started to smile. All we saw in his first smiles were a few of his bottom teeth—so cute. But this year, year five, he’s started to lift his lip on the side to expose his bigger smile. He gets rewarded for smiling, so he’s doing it more and more. Someone told me that smiling and laughing are like a small vacation. Both are good for the soul and a blessing to others too, when they come from a good heart.

It’s been rough at work lately, but I’ve noticed that even when we have rough days, it’s not too long before the smiles come back and the laughing returns. Nothing can really stop us when there’s goodness in our hearts.

But like Peanut, we need to keep practicing. Even when things get tough, we can always find at least one little thing to smile about, no matter how obscure that little thing may be. A smile is a start to a better attitude, but it has to come from within and be genuine. If someone tells us to smile, it rarely works, because even if we do smile, it’s not heartfelt, and more likely to be a smirky smile. We all know that a smirky smile usually hides disgust or anger. It’s not worth much.

I smile at Peanut because I love him, and he smiles back because he knows he’s loved. It’s the same with our relationship with people and with God. And when people disappoint us, and we don’t have any smiles for them, well, we need to find something from God we can smile about. He smiles back at us even though we can’t see Him. But the Bible guarantees that if we turn our hearts toward God, He is quick to make things better for us.

Psalm 34:5 tells us: “If you look to him for help, he will put a smile on your face.”

Only God knows the real truth about any situation, and He tells us what it is. Sometimes just having God’s insight, His point of view, makes me smile no matter how bad or crazy the situations may seem at the time.   

Ecclesiastes 8:1 says: “Only the wise know what things really mean. Wisdom makes them smile and makes their frown disappear.”

When God makes us smile, then we have a genuine smile to give.

Let’s be like Peanut and keep finding a reason and opportunity to smile. Once we let it out, the smiles seem to come easier and faster.

Love, Carolyn

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