Proverbs 17:22

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

There are some Bible verses you read that are really hard to understand and you can spend ages mulling them over and questioning them. This one however, I totally understand.

When you wake up with this verse in mind, it makes a tremendous difference to your day. As an example, at the beginning of last week, things were not going too well. A lot of people owed me money at work whilst I didn’t even have enough to buy a pint of milk (literally). A good friend of mine took too many tablets and had to go to hospital (she is fine, thankfully). The worry and stress of all of this was making little things big. I fought with JT before he went to work because he was too busy to make me a cheese roll as well as making one for himself. Someone stole our wing mirror glass and bashed our other mirror in. People said things and I took them the wrong way. I was spending large periods of the day staring at my screen and not knowing where to start. Clients were being really petty and messing me around.

Then we had a sunny day. I always feel more upbeat when the sun shines and I realised that I had been focussing on all the negatives. I made a decision there and then to do whatever I had to do for the rest of the week (where possible) with a cheerful heart. It is amazing what a difference it makes. You start to notice all the good stuff. A lovely friend called at the office with ice-creams. One of our favourite clients made one of those encouraging comments that you will probably never forget as long as you do business. We got paid! (Hooray!) Two close friends got offered jobs. I laughed a lot more. We got into Design Week. Luke bought us a curry and came over to eat it with us. The list goes on…………

A cheerful heart makes you feel healthier in body. It even makes the mundane tasks (like housework) more do-able. Would love to know if you have experienced this too.