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Backstory – Who Makes You Smile

My mother used to urge me to smile more often.  Seems I was a rather sullen pre-teen whose expression was too often a scowl.  Turns out that I needed glasses.  Once I could see well, there was so much beauty and joy around me, it was impossible not to smile.

I later passed the smile advice on to my daughter.  She was a very serious teenager whose frequent frown gave the perception of dissatisfaction.  She took the advice and her demeanor changed dramatically.

Later, when she started climbing her career ladder, I reminded her of the power of a smile in business situations too. 

As a young executive, she called me one day and explained that she now headed a division comprised mostly of people older (and, she seemed to suggest) wiser than she.  How best to supervise them was her question.  Again I advised that she could have a better response when news or corrections were delivered with a smile. She’s been enjoying smiling success for years.

So we’ve been smile advocates in my family for a long time.  I was admiring smiles on audience members at a children’s play one day and noticed all the different kinds of smiles.  It made me start thinking about different kinds of smiles that each person has in their personal life.  Out of that contemplation came the script of today’s story which queries about the smiley faces in your life.

Consider This Show – Who Makes You Smile

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Is there a person in your life who can always make you smile? Someone who seems to be able to brighten the darkest day . . . find hope in the most confusing situation?

What a gift it is when we have someone like that. It could be a spouse . . . a sister or brother . . . a friend or even a co-worker. I hope you get to be in their company often.

I wonder if the person who makes you smile knows that she or he has that talent. Do you think they set out to brighten people’s days? or do they just do it naturally, just by being themselves.

What would it take to become one of those people?

The first thing, I suppose, is the smile. The smile has to come naturally and be real. There’s nothing worse than a smile that beams one moment and extinguishes or becomes a frown in the next. So the smile has to be sincere.

And the desire to be kind and help has to be innate. That doesn’t sound so hard. Why not give it a try?

Do two things.

• That person who makes you smile – let them know.  It will mean a lot for them to get that feedback
• Follow their lead and become a person who makes others smile

Hey – you just made the world a better place!

[Show #628]