Something to smile about

Initially I did not want to do it. Some of my friends got me started on it by encouraging me to try it, but I was wary. In the end though, against all of my better judgment, I tried it. At first I did not like it all that well, but the more I tried it, the more I liked it, right up until the point that I got addicted. I am ashamed of my addiction and have tried to hide it from my family and friends, but some of them have caught on and I suppose I should come out of the closet and just admit it; yes I watch American Idol. There I have said it

I do not know what possesses me to watch this show, but I now record it and watch every episode. Yes I have my favorite this year and it is the precocious little kid with the wonderful captivating smile as big as Texas and a big beautiful voice to go along with it. I hope he wins, but the competition this year is really stiff and I have some other favorites including the nice looking blue eyed bushy headed blonde with the captivating smile. (Who cares if she can sing all that well, or forgets the words?)

I was thinking about this subject this morning and wondering why some of the other contestants do not smile more or in some cases at all. People love to see someone smile and in a contest such as this television show, whereby the audience votes them in or out, it seems that they would spend at least an equal amount of time practicing smiling as singing. It is not rocket science, people like friendly people.

I once tested this smile theory on an airplane. I was sitting in first class and everyone was beginning to board the plane. I decided that I would smile broadly at the first ten people to come onboard and then not smile to ten (and even outright glare at some of them). My experiment dramatically proved that people love to see someone smile. Those who got the smile broadly smiled back, nodded to me, spoke to me, and a couple even patted me on the shoulder. Those not receiving a smile gave me surly looks back, and those who received my infamous glare, actually recoiled and looked away with a mean look on their faces, refusing even to make eye contact.

There is a lesson to be learned here. Smiling and being friendly are highly desirable features, especially for sales people. I probably should not share this story, but what the heck I have not received any nasty e-mails since I shared the story about splashing the cyclist with water with my car downtown Atlanta. One time our sales team was in a major city presenting our software. Millions of dollars were at stake and every sales person on the team had a serious, grim look on their face and not one of them was smiling. Fearing disaster I knew I had to do something drastic. There were about ten of us and we were getting ready to go in and face their committee of thirty some odd.

I called everyone together and told them that they all needed to smile and not have grimaces and frowns on their faces when we went in there. I asked them all to take out their cell phones and place them in the vibrate mode and to place them in their front pocket. I suggested that one team member stay behind and call the various members of the team periodically in order to set off the vibrators on their phones and put a smile on their faces. They all laughed heartily and we entered the rooms with smiles on our faces.

I relate this story just to emphasize the importance of smiling and being happy. Don’t take yourself and your situation so seriously. God wants us to enjoy life and not go through it scowling as though the sky is falling. Take time to enjoy all that God has blessed us with and enjoy yourself some. I cannot verify this with Scripture, and none of the paintings that I have seen of Jesus depict Him as smiling, but my hunch is that He had a captivating smile on His face most of the time and that He laughed often, particularly when around children. I envision my first encounter with Him as seeing Him approaching me with a big captivating smile on His radiant face which will take away any apprehension that I might have.

Try my little experiment, (smiling and frowning at various people), to ascertain for yourself that indeed it is true that smiling and being friendly endears you to others. This cannot help but enhance your ability to succeed at everything you do Smile!

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are like a
honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul and
health to the bones.