I penned these thoughts of mine on Sunday, June 14.
You know those people. Those who are always smiling, laughing, enjoying themselves. I appreciate those types of people. I often wish I could be more like them.
I've known other people in my life who feel exactly opposite about these perpetually-smiling individuals. Sometimes we might know that one of these particular individuals is going through a rough time.
"How can they smile when they have to go home to that? They're just faking."
Other times, our own trials only make us grumpy about other peoples' happiness.
"There's no way anyone could be that happy."
Perhaps we're right.
Perhaps those people do go home, whether to friends, family, or all alone. Perhaps, when left to their own thoughts, they recall the magnitude of the trials facing them, the pain they've experienced over the years, the regrets they cannot shake no matter how hard they try. Perhaps they find themselves stuck in a rut, in a pit, with no hope of escaping. Perhaps they wish to cry, but they have long since run out of tears, those being replaced by naught but a sad, hardened expression. They might confront these feelings, perhaps failing, or they might curl away and hope those feelings will simply depart.
And yet, when these people return to our lives, they smile.
Perhaps some people do put on a mask of happiness. I don't know. I find it more likely that they have discovered a grand truth in life: that your circumstance does not need to steer your mood.
God didn't put us here to be miserable. He put us here to enjoy life. It is true we all have to face our trials, but that does not mean we need to be consumed by them. Through the Atonement, God and Christ can lift us up and help us become strong, no matter how many times we stumble, no matter how many times we are weak.
Perhaps it is hard to remember.
Perhaps it is hard to live.
But it is truth.
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