Smile :)

Yesterday my photo prompt was Makes Me Smile. So I thought I'd extend all the smiling into a blog post :)

Psalm 68:3 says,

Proverbs 15:13 says,

I'm glad God wants us to be full of joy, and happy. And you know... I believe God wants to see us smiling. 

Daily, He gives me reasons to smile. For example...

When I got home from work yesterday, seeing how excited both of my nieces were to see me made me smile. And the little one was all loving in my arms and then quickly fell asleep. And come on... How can you hold a beautiful sleeping baby and not smile?! :)

I had breakfast duty yesterday morning, so I had to monitor the cafeteria, clean up spills, help open milk cartons - the usual... And I noticed something while I was doing all of that. Every single child had a smile on his face. These kids were so incredibly happy about today's pancakes & syrup breakfast. It's the little things that mean the most sometimes :)

I love how God will send seemingly little things our way from time to time to let us know He cares for us and wants us to be happy. I love Cranberry Limeades from Sonic, and have sadly been deprived for quite a while since they were remodeling my local Sonic. So imagine my delight when I saw they'd reopened yesterday so I could treat myself as a reward for being good all week ;)

On our field trip to the capitol earlier this week, while I heard about the history of our state, I smiled thinking about how far Alabama has come since its beginning. We may still have a ways to go, but we're definitely not as bad as we once were!

I went to buy stamps yesterday and smiled thinking about the joy it brings me to send mail to someone. I love picking out a card, hand writing a note, and then sending it off. It makes me smile when God places someone on my mind, asking me to pray for them and then send them a card or a letter. 

Oh Common Core... You make me smile. You're actually not all evil, contrary to what many parents around the U.S. think. It makes me smile to listen to some of the silly reasons they give sometimes... 

Reading is something I love. It helps me learn. It helps me grow. And it helps me relax. And when I saw the quote below, I couldn't help but smile.

I love music. I have quite the eclectic mix of genres, artists, and songs all ready to be enjoyed. But when I got in the car to go to my Berean class this morning, I turned on my Christian only playlist. And when Chris Tomlin's, God of this City, came on, I immediately smiled. I'd used this song in my last video during itineration, so it always makes me think of Senegal.