A living smiley face

We all need people in our lives who make us smile.  Wouldn’t you agree?

My daughter, Addison, has a knack for making me smile multiple times a day. Many times it’s the funny things she says and does, but often it’s simply because she usually has a smile on her own face. Even when she’s washing dishes, or cleaning her room, or some other task most people would consider unpleasant, she smiles while she works (and usually sings, too.)

A couple of Saturdays ago, at the conclusion of  her last baseball game of the season, her wonderful coach and his wife decorated a picnic table and stacked it up with pizza and drinks for the team to enjoy while he presented the players with their trophies and bragged on each of them. I loved that when he talked about Addy, he mentioned the fact that she always had a smile on her face. It’s true–even when she was running laps, she was smiling. And for this mom, that’s more reason to be proud and happy than if she’d hit a home run every game.

When her coach was done with his little speech, Addison happily took her trophy and went back to her pizza and her friends. As we walked through our front door that afternoon, the first thing I said was, “Addy, let’s get a picture of you with your cool, new trophy!”

She picked it up and immediately dropped it–right on the floor, right on its point–breaking it into two pieces. At nine years old, I’d have been crushed. I’d probably have cried, or at least felt sorry for myself that I’d broken it before I’d even gotten a picture. But, not Addy. She picked it up, looked the pieces over, shrugged her shoulders, and said, “Oh, well.” Then she proudly held it up for me to photograph.

And, as usual, she smiled.

If you look closely, you can see the crack where the two pieces are being held together. If you look closely, you can see she’s not having to fake her smile. She’s just happy…broken trophy and all.

I want to be like Addy. I want to smile so much–so sincerely–that others around me just can’t help but smile, too. How thankful I am for her example. How grateful I am to be the recipient of so many of those sweet, bright smiles.

Have you been smiling today? Are you smiling regardless of what kind of day it is?

That’s what I’ll be working on today.  Join me?

“You have put gladness in my heart…”     ~Psalm 4:7

Thanks for stopping by!