Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Ecclesiastes 7:3
Who would have thought that you'd ever hear me say that a sad face is better than a happy one? Haven't we always heard that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile? I'll be honest, I've never really taken a lot of time with this verse; never really considered it much actually. I'm very translucent. No matter how hard I try, when my heart is heavy, it shows on my face. That's not always the best thing, but I guess reading over this verse I understand that it's not always the worst thing either.
Many times the burdens we carry are made heavier because we try to act like we aren't bothered. We have to wear the "face" of a Christian, right? The problem with that thinking is that the question remains: what is the "face" of a Christian? David was a man after God's own heart, yet, his heart was overwhelmed many, many times, and there's no indication that David tried to disguise the burdens he carried.
What exactly does the verse mean when it says, by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better? Many times our hearts don't heal from wounds because we don't allow ourselves to be "real". The one example that I can think of is the Sunday that Hailey and Daniel moved to Key West. It was a Sunday, and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through the services. I stayed in the nursery because I didn't want to be an emotional mess during the service. As the day wore on though, it became very apparent that I wasn't going to be able to stop the torrential flood of tears that besieged me literally all day long. By the evening, I had given up reapplying make-up to my tear-stained face and just let myself cry. I cried before the service, I cried during the service, and I cried literally all day long. What happened? I realized that I couldn't pretend I was okay on the outside when on the inside my heart was shattered. And, guess what happened? When I stopped trying to be Miss Got-It-All-Together, the Lord could comfort me.
I'm not advocating crying needlessly and promoting drama. You girls know me better than that. But, I am saying that we need to stop being afraid of being real people dealing with real burdens by the grace of a real Savior.
Scripture Reading for the Day:
Proverbs 16
Matthew 1
I am also very transparent you can always tell when something is wrong with me even when I try to hide it. I realize now that sometimes it is better not to hide it.
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