Strength in Smiling

What is strength?
Is the power to lift tons?
Or is it the power to look your love on in the eye and break their heart?
How about the power to live through all your troubles?

The definition of strength takes on many forms. To some it is the power to overcome all "weak minded" individuals and take everything that they worked for. To others it's the ability to get up and go to a job that they despise just to put food on the table for their children.

To me it is smiling when something deep inside me is wailing like they were just beat. To me having strength is being able to smile. I can smile! I CAN SMILE! People have called me this, that, ugly, pretty, broken my heart, stabbed me in the back, kicked me when I was down, and the list continues to go own. But I, can smile. I am STILL smiling! The strength that I gain from smiling is stronger than any human or machine on Earth. My strength comes from God.

Nothing the devil has done or will do will get me down. Because I can smile. I am smiling. I will smile.

One of my favorite Kirk Franklin songs is off of his new album "Hello Fear". The song is entitled "I Smile" and every time I hear the song it warms my heart.

I smile, even though I hurt see I smile,
I know God is working so I smile,
Even though I’ve been here for a while
I smile, smile..
It’s so hard to look up when you look down.
Sure would hate to see you give up now.
You look so much better when you smile, so smile.

These lyrics are so empowering to EVERYONE. You can smile, through the hurt, the pain, the trials, and the rain YOU CAN SMILE!

So smile

(: