When You’re Smiling

Therefore encourage each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

—1 Thessalonians 5:11

 

There is a quote by Dolly Parton that says, “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” I think of days when I am feeling depressed or worried, and it’s hard to put a smile on my face. It is times like that when you need someone to remind you there is a reason to smile. Smiles can be infectious. I know if I see someone smile, I smile back. I do the same thing when someone winks at me (I wink back), or if someone yawns around me (it causes me to yawn). 

 

If we think about the Golden Rule, i.e., Luke 6:31, “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise,” if you want someone to smile at you, shouldn’t you do the same for them. You never know what someone else is going through. They may be in a bad mood one day and make you angry, or they are just a miserable person on a regular basis. We should think about why they are in a bad mood or such a miserable person. Something in their life is not going well, and we just don’t know what it is. Therefore, sometimes all you can do with people like that is to be friendly and smile. It may just be what they need.

 

Romans 14:19 says, “Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may build up another.” We deal with difficult people every day, but if we stoop to their level and are also difficult, then we are not pursuing “the things which make for peace.” Instead, we are just reinforcing their difficult behavior. When I deal with difficult people, and I do nearly every weekday, I smile, I am pleasant, and I don’t let them know how miserable I think they are.

 

In the song "When You're Smiling" popularized by Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and others, it says:

 

When you're smilin', when you're smilin'

The whole world smiles with you

When you're laughin', when you're laughin'

The sun comes shinin' through

 

But when you're cryin', you bring on the rain

So stop that cryin', be happy again

Keep on smilin', 'cause when you're smilin'

The whole world smiles with you

 

When you're smilin', when you're smilin'

The whole world, it smiles with you

When you're laughin', oh babe, when you're laughin'

The sun would-a come shining through

 

But when you're cryin', you bring on the rain

So, stop that sighin', come on and be happy again

Keep on smilin', 'cause when you're smilin', baby

The whole world smiles with you