Be Someone's Reason to Smile
Did you ever have a day when life just wasn’t going well? Did anyone say or do something that gave you a reason to smile? How did that change your day? Now—in the hustle and bustle of a busy life, how do you spontaneously encourage someone going through a rough time?
Eight ways to be someone’s reason to smile today
- Respect, affection, and friendship are all gifts we give to others. Use a person’s name when you speak to him—it communicates respect. Try using a nickname—it communicates affection and friendship.
- Smile—it’s your mental handshake and opens another’s heart to receive. A smile is also contagious.
- Put on your listening ears and really try to understand what another is going through. Compassion is a gift seldom given, and most of us interpret compassion as being deeply heard and understood.
- Repeat a secondhand compliment you heard about a person. “Say Sally, Fred told me that you are one of the best receptionists he has ever encountered. You really made him feel welcomed and at ease when he came in for his blood work at the cancer center.”
- Ask the person to explain something to you or to teach you how to do something simple. People feel good when they teach someone else something useful.
- Text message, Twitter, or Facebook a one sentence note that lets a person know you are praying for him.
- The spontaneous gift of a cup of coffee, flowers, a simple card, or candy always brings sunshine to another’s day.
- Help someone—find a need and meet it.
I appreciate the positive command of 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (NIV).Share with us something that someone did recently to put a smile on your face.
In Him together, Susan Gaddis