Smile Makers

What makes you smile?

I wrote this little verse to commemorate 

national smile day, which according to my 

own personal calendar is today.

It's all in the way we look at it.  

                            

                             Sunshine and rain can bring smiles to our lives.

It’s our choice.

As the rings on a tree tell of rain and of drought

Do my wrinkles display what my life’s been about?

Do Laugh lines tell tales of how often I smiled?

It’s my choice.

Or maybe I find when I look in the mirror

My mother and grandmother’s faces appear.

Recently we attended the funeral for a very special man.  His name was Al Hamilton.  Al was an amazingly happy person.  I don't think he had much in the way of worldly goods.  I don’t know if he even owned a home, but most everything that was given to him, he gave away.

He worked as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Kenya, the Sudan and many other locations overseas. 

Al touched many ministries and people in his life.  He was director of Missions Services International.  He founded Pioneer Bible Translators, Outreach International, which is a ministry that recruits people to work in the unreached areas of the world.  Al founded Youth Educational Services, providing short term missions opportunities for students who want to serve in other countries.   He also served as a minister in several churches in the US and inspired, taught, mentored, discipled, and led many people to “proclaim Christ to the nations” – which was always his focus.

But with all of the things he accomplished in his life – Al would smile and say, remember Phil 2:13, “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  He wanted to bring pleasure to the Almighty God, and I believe he did.

There was such joy in the face of Al Hamilton, and he has passed that trait on to the many people who were close to him.  He taught us to give and he taught us to laugh.  I talked to a young man at the funeral who told me about the advice Al gave him on raising his son.  He said that Al told him, “Teach that little one to laugh, the world will teach him all he needs to know about frowning.”

Al would always bring a smile to the faces of children – and the faces of anyone willing to “lighten up” a bit.  He was an amazing worker for God and an amazingly happy person.

Let’s talk about being that happy person.  What makes us grow laugh lines on the “ear” side of our eyes, instead of that frown line between our eyes?

Let’s talk a few ingredients that, I believe will grow smiles for us, like they did for our friend. I’ll call them wrinkle removers.

Knowledge, Friendship, Love, Security, and Peace

There is a secret place that all of those things can be found.  Well it’s not so secret – they are displayed to us in the Bible.  They come from the heart of God.

Let’s see if we can find them.

KNOWLEDGE – does that make us smile?

Proverbs – written partially by Solomon, who asked God for knowledge and wisdom tells us the following:

Proverbs 2:10

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 

Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul – knowledge of God will make you smile.

And then in 2 Corinthians 4:6  we read about knowledge of our most awesome God.  Paul calls that knowledge, light!

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

What could give us more joy and happiness than knowing God?

Our next wrinkle remover is

FRIENDSHIP – generally friendships make us smile.

It’s something to give away, and something that we receive.  Job tells us of his intimate friendship with God. 

Job 29:4

Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,

Job had been blessed by his friendship with God, and that friendship gave him the freedom even to question and complain to God.  That kind of closeness is rare even in friendships on earth.

In John 15:15, Jesus is talking to His disciples, and He tells them, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.” 

If we are His disciples, His followers, Jesus calls us friends as well.

Let’s think about what James says about Abraham.  James 2:23

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.

Because he believed God, God called him “friend.”

The third wrinkle removing ingredient is

LOVE – of course that makes us happy.

There are so many wonderful scriptures about the love of God.  Think about what God told Moses that He (God) was like.

Exodus 34:6 tells us

(GOD) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

God says He abounds in love for man.

---

John says that God’s love is lavished on us as well. 

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

1 John 4:10

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The fourth ingredient would be

SECURITY – did you ever think of how pleasant security is?

 

We can smile because we’re secure in God.  I love this verse – it’s the only one I’ll use here because it’s so powerful.

Psalm 112:6-8

Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
    they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news;
    their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
    in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.

And the last smile-maker is PEACE.

It’s hard to smile if we don’t have peace.

John 14:27

We read that Jesus told his disciples – and he tells us. “

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

And then finally,

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

So what can put a smile on your face, like it did for our friend, Al? 

Knowledge – knowing God.

Friendship – the friendship of our savior. 

Love – the love of God

Security – feeling secure in the arms of our God

And

Peace – the perfect peace we have because we know about the friendship, love and security that comes from God, our father, and His Son, the Prince of Peace.

From Diane

All scripture references from the NIV of the Bible