The language of your smile
have you ever stopped to notice?
Sometimes I smile with my eyes. Other times, I smile with my lips. Many times, I smile with my head. But it is a beauty and a wonder — my smile. In fact, all smiles. You can see the depth of a person’s excitement with just a smile, read energy through a smile, and even start a conversation with one.
It’s so powerful that people have learned how to control it — where it comes from, whether the heart or just the face. I find it amazing that someone can fake a smile and still have it mean something. Maybe that’s the thing: people fake smiles because they know even a fake one can do something. It can smooth over tension, end a conversation, and keep the peace.
I’ve done it too. If I fake a smile when my team lead is talking, he takes it as if all is good. And even if he doesn’t truly believe it, he can’t fault me — because I smiled.
And yet, for all the noise a fake smile can make, it’s the quiet power of a real one that stays with me. The one that reaches the eyes and can be felt in the cheeks. The one that brightens a room and calms uneasy hearts.
I’ve done it all — faked a smile, given a half-smile, a tired smile, a genuine smile, an uninterested smile, a bored smile, an out-of-reach smile, a here-but-not-here smile. And my favorite moments are the times my smile reaches my eyes, and my cheeks start to hurt.
But above all, I’m in love with my smile — and the very concept of smiles. What a beautiful invention by my God.
Sometimes I wonder what His smile looks like.