A Merry Heart

Created To Be His Help Meet

By Debi Pearl

Thoughts on Chapter Two: A Merry Heart

The Bible tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Making the journey through marriage, you will need all the strength afforded by the joy of the Lord.

"A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones."

Proverbs 17:22

"Love is like a flower: you can't expect it to grow without sunshine." 

A joyful heart is very important to building your marriage into the heavenly gift it was meant to be.

"A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken."

Proverbs 15:13

People are drawn to a smiling face. This counts your husband*

One Ugly Hillbilly!

“A few years back, there was an overweight hillbilly woman who worked in the local store in our hometown.  Every time we went into the hardware store, several men would be standing around the counter talking to her, and they were always luaghing.  We usually had to wade throught the cheerful crowd and interrupt the gaiety to get served.  Her swarm of admireres reminded me of bees around the honey, buzzing with high iterest.  The strange thing was that this woman was ugly, I mean, hillbilly ugly, which worse than regular ugly.  One day as we were leaving the store, I laughingly brought to my husband’s attention all those men standing around talking to the salses cleark.  His reply really surprised me, “Oh, you mean that cute little lady?”  Live and learn!  And apparently I really had something important to learn.  In his mind that lady was cute!  The truth is, she was not little, she was not cute, and she was not young.  But she did smile, laugh, and giggle, and she was always ready for a good clean joke.  I loved being in the sotre talking to her as much as the men did.  She was delightful.  A few weeks later, we saw her in the grocery store.  She was mad at her very obese daughter for grabbing a handful of candy.  Gone were the smiles, giggles, and radiance that had so captivated everyone at the hardware store.  In their place was a bitter, ugly, snarl.  My hsuband remarked when we left the grocery store, “Haven’t we seen that woman somewhere before?  She looks familiar, but I just can’t place her.”  When I told him who she was, he was stunned.  “No, it’s not possible; it just can’t be her.  The woman in the hardware store does not look like that.”  I could see the truth dawn on him, and he was so disappointed.  The funny thing was that the woman looked just like she always did.  She was the same size, sam scraggly hairstyle, the same clothes style, the same everything she was when we saw her in the hardware store.  All she lacked was her glorious smile.  It was her most valuable asset.  Her face was always so radiant, her smile so infectious, her laughter so sweet, and her eyes so earnest that people simply saw her as cute.  I don’t know if she had a husband, but I am sure she could have had a dozen different men in that small town- as long as they never saw her in the grocery store, mad at her daughter.

Everyone is drawn to a smile and wants to be a friend to someone overflowing with good will.  Men are highly attracted to smiles.  That includes your husband.  Do you want your husband to stay home more?  A merry heart and a mischievious giggle are good drawing cards.”

"Never demand that a man love you and cherish you because he ought to. Earn every smile and shared moment."

Make a New Habit:

What can you do today to make your husband smile?

Get Serious With God:

Do a study on the word "joy". You will find it is found 167 times in the Bible. Try to memorize verses about joy that really speak to you.

Think of other ways and time during the day that you can establish a habit of praise and thanksgiving by showing joy. Write them down, and think of yourself doing them and putting them into practice.

Palms 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.