Any Day Is a Great Day for Smiles

“A smile is happiness you’ll find right under your nose.” — Tom Wilson

Have you ever seen a dog smile? You might say Frankie is smiling here, or it could just be a goofy look. You can decide. We did have a dog named Tate once that did smile. Whenever we would get home after being to church, town, school, wherever, he would run out to meet us and pull his lips back in a funny dog grin. I don’t think I ever caught a picture of it. That was prior to phone cameras and take- a-zillion-pictures digital cameras. But it was fun to be greeted by a doggy smile.

The Bible says smiling is good in Proverbs17:22a. “A merry heart does good, like medicine.” (New King James Version)

Experts (whoever they are) say smiling even when you don’t feel like smiling will suddenly make you feel a little more like smiling.

I didn’t feel much like smiling today. A filling fell out of one of my front teeth last night and so I spent a couple of hours in a dentist chair today getting that fixed. I like my dentist. She’s great, but I can’t say that I look forward to going to see her when I know she’ll have a drill in her hand. Still, I was very glad to get my tooth fixed.

Anyway, now that I have a front tooth without a hole and I can smile again, I decided what a great time to see if I can get you to smile along with me.

First here is one of my favorite stories. Who knows? It could even be true. Since I’m writing a story right now that has a schoolteacher as a minor character, this one came to mind.

A nursery school teacher was helping a boy get his shoes on at the end of the day. After quite a struggle with the boots, which were a little tight, she finally got them on. 

“They’re on the wrong feet,” the boy said. 

He was right. So, with a sigh, she pulls them off and manages to get them back on the right feet.

All is well until the boy looks up at her and says, “They’re not my boots, Miss.” 

The teacher does her best to stay calm as she kneels down to pull off the boots again. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks. 

The boy looks at the boots. “These aren’t my boots. They’re my brother’s. Mom said for me to wear them.” 

At this point the teacher can feel tears coming, but she pulls up her teacher fortitude and gets his feet shoved down into the tight boots one more time. Then she helps him into his coat and wraps his scarf round his neck before asking him where his gloves are. 

“Oh, Miss, I always put them in my boots so they won’t get lost!”

Can’t you just imagine a teacher somewhere having just this kind of experience and maybe after a year or two, she might even tell the story and laugh.

Now here are some zany words of advice and a few definitions that make entirely too much sense.

~Plan to be spontaneous – tomorrow.
~On the other hand, you have different fingers. (This one’s my favorite.)
~Mosquito – An insect that makes you like flies better.
~Dust – Mud with the juice squeezed out.
~Yawn – An honest opinion openly expressed. (Hope you don’t have a yawning fit when you’re reading one of my books.)
~Gossip – A person who will never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.
~Adult – A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle. (Ouch! I could have left that one off, couldn’t I?)

Hope something makes you smile every day. Better yet every hour. No, not every minute. That would just be too much. You’d feel like a beauty pageant contestant and your smiling muscles would wear out.

Did I make you smile? Do you have a favorite funny story or one-liner?

Wait – One more thing before you go.

Are you on Instagram? Ever take part in a Bookstagram Tour there?

If you think it’s something you might enjoy doing, you can check out the OFFICIAL BOOKSTAGRAM Tour for The Pursuit of Elena Bradford by Ann H. Gabhart, published by Revell, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours, LLC. This tour will be held from May 19-23, 2025. Just click on this link or copy and past the link below to get more information. If it’s something you’d like to do, you might get a free book and have some fun posting a picture of it.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwUo2bcJZD51dVhgc2Dc1GWx8DEskG0ibBSFbFPJmXs7YbBA/viewform