By Beth Pinyerd
It’s wonderous what a smile can do!
I can still remember and put to heart the song that Louis Armstrong sang “When You’re Smiling, the Whole World Smiles with You.” Smiles do not cost a thing, but their benefit cannot be measured.
Recently when I was a little weary and entering into an early childhood classroom, a toddler who was not even talking yet elevated my mood and won my heart with a smile and a wink. This little fellow’s smile was so contagious that it encouraged me to smile all day long.
We have every reason to smile and have joy because God has given us life. Babies begin to socially smile at six to eight weeks. We are attracted to people who smile. It’s a light that links us together!
I know when I am experiencing stress, a smile from someone can ease my stress and help me look at my situation in a totally different light. In tense situations, there are many benefits we can glean from smiles.
It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. Medical professionals tell us in overall health, smiling does help in our immune system to function better by giving it a boost and lower blood pressure. Smiling triggers certain neurotransmitters to be released which helps us to feel good all over.
We can be having a bad day, but smiling or seeing someone else smile is a strong emotion which triggers joy, happiness and a sense of sharing contentment. A simple smile is outreach to another person and gives them hope!
I love to look at family, church and school photo albums of gatherings which show smiles of happiness and joy! I reflect back on that time and why we are all smiling.
It may have been a funny joke, a moment shared of family or friend happiness or just being together in that one moment. Even though a loved one or friend is no longer with us, smiles are still shown in the picture, which cannot be taken from my heart of that moment of joy in remembrance of that special time.
A picture paints a thousand words of the smiles we witness captured in time. This promotes such gratitude to God for life’s moments like this.
Smiling truly helps us to stay positive, confident and truly more desirable to be around. A little smile shared spreads a light, a radiance which in our world today is a moment we all need to capture!