“Emma, where’s your smile?”  A toddler at the time, Emma was in her bedroom with us playing and was simply in a foul mood.  To help get her out of her funk, John inquired, “Emma, where’s your smile?” 

He then encouraged her to go find her smile, “Maybe it’s in your bathroom sink.  Go see if it’s there.”  Moments later Emma excitedly returned, exclaiming, “Look, Daddy!  I found my smile.”  And just like that, all was well.  

And just like that, all is well.  Let’s be honest.  Life’s challenges are not always as easy to humanly fix, are they?  In the midst of trying to maneuver through difficult times, we can become laser-focused on the trials and lose sight of having a merry heart, a heart that desires to make things better, a heart that desires to heal.

Though we cannot just imaginatively go and get our smiles out of the sink like Emma did, we can trust the God of the universe to lovingly guide us and help us find our hope once again.  He is faithful.  He is true.  He can bring renewed hope and healing to wounded hearts, for His Word remains the perfect prescription for our every need: 

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”  Proverbs 27: 13, 14

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

 “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:  Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:17-18 

A merry heart.  It’s a daily choice made possible through Him.