Bible Verse of the Week...Cheerful Heart

Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

We would all agree the importance of taking medicine the Dr has said we need to take and would encourage others that have health issues to be sure and take their medicine like the Dr said. But do we stop to really think about how importance a cheerful heart is for our well being? I believe with all my heart that we would not have some of the medicial problems we have if we focused more on keeping the heart cheerful. Looking at this verse we read the results of not having a cheerful heart............a crushed spirit. A crushed spirit is pretty powerful since we are told it will dry up the bones! It is healthful for us to be cheerful. A cheerful heart is one that is focused on the Lord, rejoicing in Him, serving Him with gladness and humbled before Him. A crushed spirit will contribute to the sickliness of the body. A crushed spirit is one that has not surrendered their life completelye over to the Lord. They do not give the Lord their burdens and concerns but instead turn them into worries. The worries and burdens keep the heart from being cheerful and crushes the spirit. What the heart is determines the kind of person we are.

My grand-daughters and I love to watch old movies together. My grandson will watch certain one but he is not into it like the 3 grand-daughters are. One of the movies I watch with the girls is Pollyanna. In the movie Pollyanna played by Hayley Mills , she is telling her aunt that things had been rough for her and her Dad, they had no money and times were very hard on them . Pollyanna went on to tell her aunt that during those rough times they played the "glad game" they would come up with things they could be glad for and that would cheer them up. After Pollyanna's dad died she was put in a orphan until she went to live with her aunt. She became the "Glad Girl" to those that she came in contact with because she always played the glad game her Dad had taught her when things were not good for her. This is just a movie but I see a wonderful principle here to live by..........positive thinking. Positive thinking is not based on everything being right but on us seeing good in the mist of all the wrong . We do this through our realtionship with the Lord. We don't live in a perfect world and there are no prefect people walking this earthly journey so there is no way everything is going to be the way we think it should be all the time. Difficult and painful seasons are apart of this earthly life just as the good seasons are. The cheerful heart comes from trustng the Lord in all the seasons.

Precious Lord and only Savior help us to remember we are the caregiver of our own heart. We have a choice through you how we treat this heart of ours. Keep in front of us that we can help ourselves be more healthy by giving it all up to you. Lord the best medicine we will ever take is a daily dose of you so help us to fill our heart up daily with you through being in your word, talking to you, and serving you. Lord your word tells us that out of the overflow of our heart the mouth speaks so help us remember that what is inside the heart will come out our mouth. We want to be the type of servants that speaks cheerful words over others not speak bitter words that wil crush their spirits. Lord we can do all things through you so give us faith to let you be the medicine that keeps our heart cheerful. I am so glad that we have you Lord. I love you and praise your name...Amen.