Smile

I was just listening to Dia Frampton's song, Inventing Shadows. The line I love most from this song is "Don't you know the world shines every time you smile? Why can't you just smile?" So answer me. Why can't you just smile? There is so much around you to be grateful for! There are several people who are much worse off than you are.

Looking around, sometimes I feel like I can't keep going on and feel like there are so many things going wrong in my life, but then I stop and truly see the world around me. I am at BYU. That alone is reason enough to keep me smiling for quite some time. I live with 5 other wonderful people. Each of them have amazing personalities that keep me motivated in my schoolwork. I just ate a wonderful homemade dinner consisting on breaded chicken and mashed potatoes. The fact that I have food is something that hundreds of thousands of people cannot say. I have socks, I have a bed, I have a shower, clean running water, I have a blanket, a TV, a cell phone, a loving family back home, and most importantly, I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. If that can't make me smile, I don't know what can.

Now, I'm not saying that you should always be smiling, although that would be a great work out for the muscles in your face. There are times that should be serious, times that are hard on the soul. In these times, we should always have a smiling heart. A heart full of gratitude and unconditional love for our Savior. Never forget to count your blessings, name them one by one.

Smile at your friends. Smile at nature. Smile at the fact the fact that you have the technology to view this blog post. Smile in the face of temptation. Smile in times of adversity. Smile.