“As long as you live, keep smiling, because it brightens everybody’s day?” (Quote by Vin Scully American Sportscaster)
As a child I remember my mother singing a song recorded by Nat King Cole. I can still hear her voice as she softly, calmly sang, “Smile when your heart is aching. Smile even though it’s breaking. When there’s a cloud in the sky, you’ll get by. If you smile through your tears and sorrow. Smile, maybe tomorrow, you’ll see the sun coming shining through, for you.” Mom was a Christian educator, and I did not recognize, failed to realize that she was using these lyrics as a subtle technique to teach all the children in the house who heard her singing about the value of having a smiling face. As a child, the words she was singing were comforting, but I did not come to realize until years later that she was conveying the fact that a person’s smile reveals that he or she has something to be thankful for, some blessing to be grateful for, and joy that cannot be stolen by the up and down happenings in life.
While she was not singing aloud in her final days on earth, on her way to heaven, to be with the Lord, the last words I heard her say to me with the best smile that her weak body was able to muster up was “It will be alright.” Like I said, she was a Christian educator, and she continued as she her soul was about to be in the presence of the Lord.
Today is the holiday called “Thanksgiving,” and the first thing that came to my mind was my mother’s words on smiling, because often when I am too cognitive, find myself too busy concentrating, or I am consumed by challenges to grow the Lord’s church, I don’t display a smiling face. Smiling faces make a difference. So, after thanking God for one more day, I have to look towards heaven and thank my mom for the lesson that lives on in my memory about smiling. I just have to do it more smiling. And guess what? So, do you! Smile, my friend! Let the gladness that the Lord has given you; a gladness that conquers every circumstance, adorn your face. I’ll do the same. Remember mom’s words. “It is truly going to be alright!” Be blessed!
“A glad heart makes a happy face…” (Proverbs 15:13a NLT Version)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King