THINK TOGETHER.
What is something that makes you glad?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 15:13. A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.
Do you remember what your heart is? Solomon isn’t talking about the muscle in your chest that pumps your blood. He’s talking about that deep part of you that controls what you want and how you think.
Your heart is much more than your emotions too. In fact, your emotions reveal what is in your heart. That’s what Solomon is teaching us in this proverb. A cheerful face (that’s your emotions) comes from a glad heart.
Solomon is teaching his children that they can control their heart and with it their emotions. They can choose gladness or they can choose sorrow. They can choose a cheerful face or a crushed spirit. And so can you. In many ways you and I can control what makes us happy or sad. We can look past a hard situation to the truths of Jesus and let them make us glad even when something less important might try to crush us.
This does not mean that when something bad happens to us we should pretend like everything is alright. No. There are things that are truly sorrowful. But with Jesus we know that the sorrowful things won’t last forever, and that can make us glad. We know that one day he will fix everything broken and bring back every good thing that was lost. That should make your heart glad and your face cheerful.
Because of Jesus one day everything sad will be made glad.
With Jesus we can control our emotions by controlling our heart.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Show each other your cheerful face. Or make faces at each other until the others in your family laugh or smile.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you make me smile. You have changed my heart and you will fix everything that has been broken. Help me to let these truths make me glad today. Amen.
TLICfamily 