Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from Nat King Cole singing his classic hit … Smile … lovingly declaring the truth of the effect a simple smile can/will have on others.
Highlight Verse[s]: Proverbs 15:13 [NLT] … 13 A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit.
… If we can, we need to overcome our natural bent toward sorrow and choose to share as much joy as we can with others.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Proverbs 15:13-15 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+15%3A13-15&version=NLT … Yes, life at times sucks! But a smile from a loved one can bring a lot of healing, can’t it?
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Reference Passage : … Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … There’s a time under heaven for everything … a time to laugh and a time to cry!
Reference Passage : … 1st Thessalonians 5:10-11 [NLT] … 10 Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. 11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
… No matter how much pain we feel, it’s always best to lift someone else up who’s feeling their pain.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Elisa Morgan, shared a personal moment to illustrate just how contagious and uplifting a smile can be in trying moments in life. The ODB author wrote: I piled groceries in my car and carefully exited my parking spot. Suddenly a man darted across the pavement just in front of me, not noticing my approach. I slammed on my brakes, just missing him. Startled, he looked up and met my gaze. In that moment, I knew I had a choice: respond with rolled-eye frustration or offer a smiling forgiveness.
I smiled.
Relief flickered across his face, raising the edges of his own lips in gratefulness.
Hey, fellow Christian, I’m sure you’ve had a time when you didn’t feel so joyful; but sensing someone else’s pain, you chose to smile anyway. And what was the result? Almost always it’s as if it was in the ODB’s author’s experience. Smiles are contagious, aren’t they?
Oh sure, Solomon’s teaching in Ecclesiastes 3 is true, … that there’s a time for everything … a time to laugh and a time to cry. But his teaching in the highlight proverbs above is also truth, … that we can choose joy over sorrow and share it to help others in sorrow be lifted up.
It’s a hard lesson sometimes when we don’t feel good … that joy is a choice not a feeling; and that we can choose to smile, even when we don’t feel like it. And when we do, because a smile is so contagious (see photo), we can be an agent of joy for others, … just as Nat King Cole sang in his classic hit song (linked above). So, … today I’m going to try my best to infect someone with my smile … and do my best to do as Paul taught in 1Thess. 5:11. How about you?
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My THANKFULNESS: : In spite of my physical pain today, I’m so grateful for the hope of You coming to take me home some day!
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Help me to share some smiles today even tho I don’t feel like smiling. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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