I've always bristled at the idea. It seems, to me, a lesson in how to be a hypocrite. One popular women's writer says,
Start smiling at your children. Keep smiling at your children. Smile when you are happy. Smile when you are unhappy. Smile even when you don’t feel like smiling.A nice thought, but perhaps a sorely misplaced motivation. Love for God will equip me with this good fruit, not my own will.
And the steadfast, wise and articulate Oswald Chambers would seem to agree.
4 comments:
For some reason this made me LOL~so it brought me an extra smile today! HA HA! (((((HUGS))))) sandi
I had read that from N.C. too. And it always bothered me that *I* couldn't muster up a weak smile when supposedly, I *should*. Faking it doesn't work for me. I get all tense on the inside.All the "shoulds" in the world won't change the status of the heart, will it?
Sometimes the idealism I read about just makes things worse. Thanks for having the courage to acknowledge this.
~C
My response got too long, so it will now be a post on my blog. Thanks for the thought-provoking post, GB.
I have to agree with you...what kind of lesson is it teaching our children to smile when we're sad? That we should try and deny or cover up our emotions?
There are times when tears come to me...and if my girls catch me, I just tell them that Mommy is feeling sad right now but I'll be OK.
And I like the Oswald Chambers quote,
"The fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. It is absurd to think that the love of God is naturally in our hearts, as a result of our own nature. His love is there only because it "has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . ."
Since I am dealing with an issue with a fellow Christian right now, this paragraph jumped out at me. I can't muster up love for some people on my own...but God can give it me supernaturally.
Good stuff!
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