Keeping a Smile on my Face

Put a smile on your face and keep going. That is what we sometimes need to do. Rather than wearing that face of failure and hopelessness, we act as if everything is okay. Then we go about our day focused on what is right rather than what is totally broken or falling apart. People don’t really want to know how we are when they ask. At least not most people. There are our people that we can run to for comfort and support. But most people that are passing through our day just want us to smile and keep going. In a way this seems dishonest when our world is screeching to a halt. The reality is that smile is a gift that helps us make it through the day. For a brief time we can shift our focus from what is crushing us to the daily routines that are familiar and just as they are meant to be.

Pouring our coffee, brushing our teeth, driving to work are okay. Being at our desk or walking down the aisles of the grocery store with our list in hand is somehow normal even during a life crisis. These  all to routine tasks could be completed with our head in our hands weeping. Or we can put on a not so genuine smile and tell others we pass to have a nice day. We don’t need to involve them in our sadness and their returned smiles may be covering heartaches we cannot imagine. Those brief encounters are the normalcy we need for a moment even in the midst of our storms.

My nephew is in the hospital today battling such serious infections that I have been on my knees trading my worry for faith that God loves him even more than his mom and dad. Today Ron and I will go with Natalie to her midwife appointment. There is no need for us to share our concern about Troy. For a few moments our focus and our smiles will be about our soon to be in our arms grandson. Troy will still be in our hearts and in our prayers but we will focus on the joy of this moment with our girl.

Act as if is not being a fake like I thought when I first heard about it. It is a way to get through our days even when life throws heart crushing hurdles in our path. It would be impossible to walk through our days if each of us answered too honestly when someone passed us and asked that familiar  question, “How are you?” Best to smile and say great or fine and just keep walking.


In Him,
Joyful
2-18-20