There is nothing like a smile to cheer someone up. It even has a positive effect on the smiler, for want of a better word.

And the feeling that comes over you when someone smiles at you. It’s as though all is right with your world. Even if you’re having a bad day and just one person similes at you, it changes everything.

I was always a happy person growing up but no one ever mentioned my smile. It’s funny that as I grow older, it is now that people tell me “that’s a beautiful smile, or “what a beautiful smile.” I hear it while I’m walking when I’m at church, shopping and it brings joy to my heart that I’ve made someone’s day brighter.

Then I realized it is what God has done in my life that makes me happy and I tend to smile naturally. Yes, there were many years of sadness but He has changed my morning into dancing (Psalm 30:11) so I smile when I think of all that He has done.

So what’s happening now with COVID-19 my eyes smile but it’s not the same.

A few weeks ago one of my pastors suggested that we drew a smile on the disposable mask for those of us who were serving. That set me thinking and I checked out the internet to see whether there were any masks that could allow us to show our smiles. Hey, presto! Some producers took into account the deaf and hard to hear at this difficult time and they came up with a mask that shows a smile.

I’m off to order some so others can see my smile once again!

Find them at Walmart.com

Back in 2013 when I acquired a home in Florida and made the decision to live between the UK and Florida I had no idea what God was up to. The life I was accustomed to had changed, I was now on my own, devastated and seemingly with no purpose yet with no obstacles to living life how I wanted to.

Prior to leaving the UK I had a dream that I would start a business serving afternoon tea the English way. On arriving there and setting up home, I acquired all the necessary crockery and cutlery for entertaining others by having them come to tea. Checked with the council the requirements for so doing but then decided to do it informally, not as a business anymore.

It all happened as planned. I met others at church, outside church and some had become friends. What I hadn’t planned but God did, was those conversations sometimes turned out to be a cry for help. They needed to talk and share their burdens of what was going on in their lives and we could laugh and cry together as I prayed with them. God was combining my skills as a Christian counsellor and my gift of hospitality to just meet with those whom He knew needed help.

I watched how God began to bring my agenda in line with his. All along that was his intention, a ministry he had shown me in a dream that started out as simply tea and talk.

It’s ok to ask God why questions. He doesn’t always answer them this side of heaven but when we get there we will have all the answers.

I met D in church. He helped with the youth projects at church, we worshipped together, prayed together. I had finally found the right person for me. After eighteen months, we got married and life seemed fine. Both working, earning good salaries, going on at least two holidays a year. Yes, life was fine until an adoption process went horribly wrong resulting in the slow degeneration of our marriage.

I’ve question myself many times. Whether that was the right thing for us to do. I have asked God why over and over with no real answers.

God in His wisdom sometimes do not answer us for our own good. My consolation is that one day I will find out why things happened as they did.

I set many goals for myself. My bio for a recent short story published in the ACW Christmas Anthology stated that my aim was to become a travel writer. For me that means attempting to combine my photography/art with my writing. I also speak a little Spanish so I ambitiously joined a Spanish speaking class at my church. And as if that wasn’t enough, I joined the art class too having done some art lessons prior.

Would I be able to accomplish all these goals….becoming a good writer and a travel writer at that, fluent in conversational Spanish, an artist? Deep down I would like to accomplish these goals and although not impossible, they may be improbable.

I took a step back and asked myself while pursuing them, are they in any shape or form honouring to God or are they just for self-gratification? Then I am reminded that God is the giver of all gifts and as long as I am doing them with Him in mind, then they are honouring to Him.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col.3:17)

When I saw this Friday’s topic ‘TOUCH’ I said “WOW! What timing as I recently had this idea of doing a piece of writing on the Master’s touch and which I am working on right now.

Everyone at some time needs a touch, a hug, some acknowledgement of knowing that they are loved and cared for.

My dad was the tactile one more so than my mum. I remember how he would tickle us until we couldn’t stop laughing, romp with us like a kid himself, play hide and seek with us, up to when we became young teenagers. His hugs were unforgettable and he would carry us on his shoulders where we would be so high up we could see the world, or so we thought at the time. He was also a good listener. To this day I tell people he was the best listener after God.

So how much more to us is our Heavenly Father who has reached down to us and touched us with His love by sending His Son, Jesus Christ who, in physical form, touched and healed all who came to Him, both physically and spiritually.

When the blind man came to Jesus, He asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”….The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” (Mark 10:51). What about the woman caught in adultery. “Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” (John 7:10-11). Wherever we need Jesus’s touch whether physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, He is always ready, willing and waiting to give it to us, all we have to do is ask.