You’d never guess it if I kept it hidden, but I’ve got a Superpower.
With the slightest effort, I can transform myself. With a tiny bit more effort, I can transform the world around me.
Can you guess what my Superpower is?
…
…
Give up?
It’s my smile.
Now, my smile isn’t the straightest around. It’s not the brightest. It’s not the whitest. The corners of my mouth don’t curl adorably upwards – when I smile, I just kind of end up with a wider mouth with thinner lips. My full cheeks swell out and my small eyes squeeze smaller. You wouldn’t think it would work for me; it’s decidedly not the stuff of supermodels.
And yet…
And yet, without the whiteness or the brightness or the dazzle or the glamour, my smile transforms me.
I cannot count the number of times people have commented on this.
Friends laugh about how constant my smile is, in spite of all the crazy in my life – the noise and mess and delight of having four little boys, travelling and moving, etc… Those I haven’t met yet but who’ve seen me at school have referred to me as ‘the girl who’s always smiling’ or ‘the smiley one’. Total strangers have stopped me in the street to remark on my smile.
And I can say this entirely without vanity, because I know that the reason people notice me smiling is not because of how it makes me look – but because of how it makes them feel.
In this distracted, busy, hectic world, we are simultaneously over-connected and not connected at all. We know everything about everybody but we don’t know each other’s hearts. I could document my friends’ meals and outings, name their children, remember their birthdays and anniversaries, and yet be completely oblivious to their personal triumphs and struggles. I could walk past a thousand people in the city centre and never truly see a single one of them. So I have to choose to connect; I have to consciously acknowledge other people with eye contact and a smile, or else I risk passing them by without reminding them that they matter. And we all need to be reminded that we matter.
Yes, my smile transforms me. But the thing that you might not know is this: so does yours.
You have a Superpower, too – the power to transform yourself, and the power to transform the world around you.
A truly warm smile is simply an outward sign of the joy contained within. I believe that this joy – God’s gift, freely-given – is meant to be shared. I see smiling as a way of sharing my heart with others – and, more importantly, a way of sharing God’s heart for them. Quite simply, if there is anything whatsoever remarkable about my smile, it is that God’s love for others can shine through it.
So smile, and spread the joy (it is truly contagious). Show the people around you that they matter.
Transform the world with your smile.
autocratricks 