Have you ever had this experience? Your heart is rejoicing, but it forgets to tell your face about it. This often happens to me. How can such a phenomenon be explained? It is a very difficult mystery. Sometimes people remind me that a smile looks very good on me. I quickly take it out, put it on, and smile. A smile conveys my mood very well. It can reveal the condition of my heart to those who see it.
A smile is the contraction of the muscles on both sides of the face, stretching the mouth toward the ears in order to communicate your mood or inner condition to others.
Someone has counted about twenty kinds of smiles, six of which are associated with happiness.
A sincere smile of joy and pleasure is especially attractive because of its purity and beauty. It has a charming effect on the person for whom it is intended. Smiling people attract attention, make others feel comfortable talking with them, possess persuasive power, and are simply pleasant to look at.
Psychologists have taken note of the influence of a smile and have successfully introduced it into show business and business culture. If you want to sell something, you need to adorn your product with the happy smile of the person who owns it.
If you want people to elect you to some office, you need to smile broadly on your campaign posters.
A smile is also the calling card of my happiness. It is difficult to imagine happiness without a smile. If I speak about happiness with a frightening expression of pain and suffering, I do not think my words will be as convincing as I would like them to be.
A smile knows how to speak, and it tells us a great deal. When I talk with someone on the phone, I can quickly tell from the sound of the voice whether that person is smiling. Even the simple act of drawing the lips into a smile immediately changes the voice and gives it a special beauty.
How do you picture joy? I think it must include a smiling face—one that expresses its feelings with complete sincerity.
When I meet face-to-face with those I love, those who bring joy to my heart and are very dear to me, I cannot hide my smile. It automatically reveals what I am feeling. It presents the real me to others. There is something very precious in this that brightens our everyday lives.
The enemy of souls has also taken note of the distinctive power of a smile. A smiling Satan, together with his cheerful agents and representatives, appears more pleasant to the world and can deceive far more people than the angry grimace of a horned creature. Unfortunately, many take this bait and decide to follow a smiling leader without using their reason to understand who that person really is and what he is offering.
But we are building happiness. True happiness possesses genuine love, and that love naturally expresses itself in a sincere smile. It is difficult to believe that a person is happy when he looks very gloomy. Although our little house is built of the most substantial materials and carries us through the fire of trials, it is still worth smiling—or at least always remembering that a smile is good advertising for my happiness.
When I read that Jesus will behold the travail of His soul and be satisfied, I somehow picture Him smiling joyfully. Beside Him I see the Heavenly Father and the angels smiling as well. It is very difficult for me to imagine God’s satisfaction in any other way. I believe the happy smile of Jesus will dispel all our fears, answer many difficult questions, solve many problems, and give us peace and confidence that we have been accepted. Without a word, Christ’s simple smile will show us how precious we are to Him and how deeply He loves us. When my eyes meet the gaze of my Savior, I believe my heart will tremble with an overwhelming joy that I will be unable to contain. My face will spread into a happy smile, and without unnecessary words I will let my Lord know that I love Him and am deeply grateful for everything He has done for me. He will smile back at me, and it will be the smile of His infinite love—the love that led Him to Calvary. One day that meeting will take place.
It is difficult for me to picture a stern Jesus addressing the redeemed without a smile of satisfaction: “Well then, sinners, enter into the joy of your Lord!” I think panic would break out among the saved: “Are we sure we came to the right place?”
Joy includes a joyful smile.
If I live in sin, my smile will not be able to hide it; any impurity makes my happiness seem false.
Have you watched little children smile? How genuine they are in expressing their emotions, and how pure and sincere their smiles are! There is a lesson in this for us. In our happiness and sincerity, we become like children, and it shows very clearly on our faces.
Whatever your mood may be, try right now to stretch your lips into a smile and hold them in that position. The contraction of those muscles immediately signals the brain that something good is happening in your life, and the forced smile becomes genuine and happy. This is a law of our emotional world. So smile, friends, and your smile will help you become the person happiness is making you.
A gloomy face also sends signals to the brain and fills the heart with sadness. But that is not who we are.
Love knows how to smile, and it always does so joyfully and from a pure heart.
One day my wife and I went to hear a preacher. I sat there concentrating on the meaning of what he said and did not notice the details. But after the sermon, my wife told me indignantly that the man was dry and lifeless because he had not smiled even once.
Do you want those closest to you to see you as dry and unapproachable? Then forget about smiling, and that is exactly what you will become. The best way to find yourself without friends is to stop smiling. Even those closest to us subconsciously prefer to keep their distance from friends who never smile. The bolder ones ask, “Why are you so sad?”
But a smile is a spiritual magnet that draws everyone and everything toward it. Even though I know how empty advertising can be, my eyes still stop on a smiling face. I study it closely and try to understand how truly happy that person is.
A smile makes a person beautiful. Even the least attractive appearance is transformed into something lovely and kind by a happy smile.
A smile of happiness brings joy not only to me but also to those at whom I smile. It is the most effective seed, instantly producing abundant fruit. Smile at anyone, and that person will immediately smile back.
Once I was in Moscow and early in the morning went to meet my sister. We met, smiled, and headed to her workplace. I was happy, smiling broadly and sharing my feelings with someone dear to me. She told me how tired she was and how much she wanted to sleep, smiling from time to time. I began to notice the people traveling somewhere at seven in the morning. There was not a single smile—only a gray mass of worried faces—and against that background my joy was strikingly conspicuous. But I choose a happy life, and I share that happiness with others.
I can imagine how dangerous it will be to smile during the time of trouble, when chaos reigns everywhere. I believe that a heart at peace with God and living in the little house of happiness will spread into a smile even when everything around it is going badly. The preparation for that time is taking place now. Smile!
Bible verses for this chapter:
Isaiah 53:11; Zephaniah 3:17; 1 Timothy 6:6–8; Ecclesiastes 8:15; 9:7–9; Isaiah 35:10; Esther 8:16–17; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Psalms 31:8; 35:9; 89:14; James 1:2; 3 John 1:3–4; Job 38:6–7; Habakkuk 3:17–18