The tactful person looks out for opportunities to be helpful, without being obtrusive.—Margaret E. Sangster. There are many who make the serious mistake of thinking that joyousness and cheerfulness are only for the play hour and are not to be made a part and factor of the time we must devote to toil. No view could be more faulty and regrettable. It is in our working hours that we should seek to be cheerful and sunshiny. All of our tasks should be sweetened and glorified with the leaven of good humor.
The task seems never very long
If measured with a smile and song.
It is labor alone, backed by a good conscience, that keeps us healthy, happy and sane.—Godfrey Blount. Listen while one faithful worker, Emory Belle, tells us how she carried the spirit of good cheer to her daily tasks and what came of it:
"I started out to my work one morning, determined to try the power of cheerful thinking (I had been moody long enough). I said to myself: ’I have Labor was truly said by the ancients to be the price which the gods set upon everything worth having.— Lord Avebury. often observed that a happy state of mind has a wonderful effect upon my physical make-up, so I will try its effect upon others, and see if my right thinking can be brought to act upon them.’ You see, I was curious. As I walked along, more and more resolved on my purpose, and persisting that I was happy, that the world was treating me well, I was surprised to find myself lifted up, as it were; my carriage became more erect, my step lighter, and I had the sensation of treading Our daily duties are a part of our religious life just as much as our devotions are.—Beecher. on air. Unconsciously, I was smiling, for I caught myself in the act once or twice. I looked into the faces of the women I passed and there saw so much trouble and anxiety, discontent, even to peevishness, that my heart went out to them, and I wished I could impart to Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.—Shakespeare. them a wee bit of the sunshine I felt pervading me.
"Arriving at the office, I greeted the book-keeper with some passing remark, that for the life of me I could not have made under different conditions, I am not naturally witty; it immediately put Energy and determination have done wonders many a time.—Dickens. us on a pleasant footing for the day; she had caught the reflection. The president of the company I was employed by was a very busy man and much worried over his affairs, and at some remark that he made about my work I would ordinarily have felt quite hurt (being too The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling.—Thoreau. sensitive by nature and education); but this day I had determined nothing should mar its brightness, so replied to him cheerfully. His brow cleared, and there was another pleasant footing established, and so throughout the day I went, allowing no cloud to spoil its beauty for me or others about me. At the Discretion of speech is more than eloquence: and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.—F. Bacon. kind home where I was staying the same course was pursued, and, where before I had felt estrangement and want of sympathy, I found congeniality and warm friendship. People will meet you half-way if you will take the trouble to go that far.
"So, my sisters, if you think the world is not treating you kindly don’t delay a day, but say to yourselves: ’I am going to keep young in spite of my gray hairs; Bread of flour is good: but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book.—John Ruskin. even if things do not always come my way I am going to live for others, and shed sunshine across the pathway of all I meet.’ You will find happiness springing up like flowers around you, will never want for friends or companionship, and above all the peace of God will rest upon your soul."
What is wrong to-day won’t be right to-morrow.—Dutch Proverb. And all of this was brought about by a change in the attitude of the mind and a determination to look upon the sunshiny, rather than the dark, side of life. We can all do as much. It is for us to say whether we will be happy and make others happy, or whether we shall be distressed and thereby distress others.
We are only so far worthy of esteem as we know how to appreciate.—Goethe. What sort of girl are you going to be? Are you going to make the world glad or sorry that you are in it? Why don’t you decide, as you read these lines, as did Emory Belle when starting to her work that morning, that you will try to carry sunshine and not gloom into the lives of all you meet? Let us hope that there is no great reform in this matter to be worked in your life; but that you have ever been a joy-bringer and not a gloom-maker.
Therefore let us look well to the We are grateful that abundant life lies waiting in the heart of winter, and there is no condition where life is not.—Isabel Goodhue. attitude of mind and our habit of looking at things. One of our careful students of human attributes tells us—and the truth of which we all know—"that there is nothing surer than that we go and grow in just that direction in which our mind is most firmly fixed. Hoarding money absorbs the whole time and mind of the miser; how to scatter it is the chief thought of the spendthrift. Our daily Wishing will bring things in the degree that it incites you to go after them.—Muriel Strode. actions, and their result on our lives, are the effect of a cause—and that cause is invariably our previous thought. What you think most of to-day will be most likely what you will repeat to-morrow. Therefore it is of the utmost It is impossible to estimate the power for good of a bright, glad shining face. Of all the lights you carry on your face Joy shines farthest out to sea.—Anonymous. importance that we begin to think as deeply as possible on just those things that build us up. Half the work is already done if we can only concentrate our minds on that which we desire to do. It is the mind that drags us either up or down. Where that leads we follow.
No one in this world of ours ever became great by echoing the voice of another, repeating what that other has said.—J. C. Van Dyke. The power of direction is with us, but we cannot send our mind in one direction and then take the opposite road ourselves. Therefore, whether we are moving upward or downward in the scale of life depends on whether we are thinking up or thinking down. This is a truth that every person’s experience will prove to his own One fault mender equals twenty faultfinders.—Earl M. Pratt. satisfaction. Thought impels action, action forms habit, and habit rules our lives. So that no matter what direction we may wish to take, up or down, it is only necessary for us to fix our mind in the desired direction."