One of my hobbies is training my lab. I enjoy it immensely as does he. I was looking for my next challenge in training him. I’ve taught him to come, retrieve, sit, heel, lay down, roll over, stay, crawl, load up into my truck bed, and point my fingers at him like I’m holding a pistol and say BANG! and have him play dead complete with first rolling around as though wounded before “dying”.
The other day I formulated my most creative and toughest dog training challenge which is teaching him to grin. The first time I tried to wrinkle up his muzzle to simulate grinning he almost bit me. I suppose he felt that it was undignified. For whatever reason he does not seem to like smiling.
Ahh but I am patient and determined to teach him to smile and for the first time made a little progress yesterday. He didn’t wrinkle his nose, but he did widely smile as I petted him.
I was thinking about this and have noticed that my non-Christian friends don’t smile even when something funny happens. In fact, they have an affixed scowl on their faces and act like they are mad at the world. This seems paradoxical because they have chosen the world over God.
I tried a test one day when flying. I was sitting in first class and as passengers started getting on the plane I decided to run an experiment. The first ten folks who got on were greeted with the widest most welcoming smile I could muster. Some seemed shocked but invariably smiled back at me. The next ten were met with my most evil looking scowl. Those folks for the most parts quickly looked away and not a sign of a smile was on any of their faces.
Since that day I try to smile especially in situations where I meet disagreeable looking people. I was in the doctor’s office the other day and noticed the receptionist looked like she was having a terrible day and was scowling and barking at everyone who came to her window. I remembered the plane experiment and gave her the biggest brightest smile I could muster. She immediately responded with a smile of her own and went out of her way to help me.
Personally, I believe God smiles often. The Bible references Him laughing, Psalm 2:4 – He who sits in the heavens laughs . . . Many verses refer to us smiling. Conversely Satan’s countenance is evil and all he thinks about each day is how to ruin our lives. Teach your non-Christian friends about God and watch them smile. If my old black lab can do it surely they can . . .
Proverbs 15:13
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face,
But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!