In praise of cheerfulness

“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 NIV
“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 NIV

Cheerfulness, the tendency to feel and to be happy and positive is always preferable to its opposite, that gloomy sadness which keeps us looking downward and living in the mire and muck.

Cheerfulness tends to raise our eyes to the blue skies and keeps us moving forward; sorrow and sadness tend to lower our gaze and look backward in regret and forward only in fear or anxiety over what tomorrow might…