3 Minute Devotional: Smiling At Disagreeable Things With St. Therese of Lisieux

Welcome back to our very special episode of "Hope In Him Today". As your host, I, Gary Miller, take you through a three-minute devotional journey inspired by Saint Therese's book ‘Story of a Soul’.

In this intriguing episode, we dive into the wisdom presented by Saint Therese and how she recommends tackling life’s adversities with grace. She writes, “When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy look, I answer by a smile…” This wisdom gem, shared along with many others in her book, will guide you to transform your mental and emotional outlook when facing difficult circumstances.

Everyone has difficult days. Hours when nothing seems to go right, the world seems against you and frustrations run high. On such days, the wisdom of Saint Therese can be of great solace to you all, as it was for me during a challenging day. Listen in as I tell you how choosing to smile over frowning made my day a tad bit better.

Smiling won’t make the problems disappear, but it will start changing your disposition. It helps us refocus our perspective, keeping our eyes and minds on better things, or in other words, “the things above”. When we choose to hope in him, even complicated situations might bring out a smile and a taste of peace amidst chaos.

Whatever you might be facing today; demanding kids, unsettling work scenarios, miscommunication with a spouse - perhaps trying this simple wisdom from “Story of a Soul”, answering with a smile, could make your day and situation slightly easier to handle. Trust in God's plan and believe that He will shape everything for your good, even in these puzzling times.

Reflect on this concept from Saint Therese's book that we discussed in today's episode. Check the links in the show notes for more information about the book. Remember, every situation can bring about a change if looked at with the right perspective. Keep your hopes high, and see you in the next episode!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the show. My name is Gary Miller.
This place that you've landed on is called Hope and Hymn Today.
And you've landed in one of our three-minute devotionals, and I've got a good one for you today.
This comes from one of my favorite books. I first read it many,
many, many years ago, and I've just revisited it recently in my spiritual reading time.

(00:26):
And this is from a book called Story of a Soul by a very famous nun named St. Therese.
And there's just so much in that book and so many great wisdom keys.
But this one, well, it was appropriate to my day. Here's what she writes.

(00:49):
When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy
look, I answer by a smile.
At first, I did not always succeed, but now it has become a habit,
which I am glad to have acquired.
Man, let me read that one more time, just in case we all were like,
you know, still trying to get comfortable.

(01:11):
When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy
look, I answer by a smile. mile.
At first, I did not always succeed, but now it has become a habit,
which I am glad to have acquired. You know, I just came off of a day where,
I mean, if it could go wrong, it went wrong today.

(01:31):
And anybody I talked to in person, on a phone, digitally, no one had an answer
to the problems I face today.
I think there were some well-meaning people that didn't have a clue.
I think there were some partially well-meaning people that just didn't have any actual solutions.
There was a lot of talking and nothing got actually moved to get an answer.

(01:55):
And I tell you, for the first part of the day, I was hot. I was angry.
And then I remembered that I was going to teach this lesson later today.
And I thought, you know what? I need to try on some Therese.
I need to just kind of switch this countenance of mine, this furrow of mine to a smile.
Now, is that going to solve everything right away? I wish it did, but it's not.

(02:18):
But what it is going to start doing is changing my disposition,
changing where my eyes are looking and looking above.
Keeping my mind, as the word would say, stayed on the things above so that I
can have, well, I don't know, We named the show after it so that I can have some hope in him.
I wonder where you might need to answer with a smile today in your life.

(02:44):
Maybe it's with one of your children that's running you right up a tree and
you're like, man, alive.
And maybe it's a smile. Maybe it's a smile with a spouse, a coworker,
or a situation like today where the wheels just came completely off today.
And at some point you just got to smile, trusting that God will work it all together for my goods.

(03:05):
There's something in here for
me in this crazy time, and I know he'll show me what it is in his time.
Give this some thought from Story of a Soul. I'll share a show link inside the
show notes, so you can check this book out. Man, it's a good one. I'll see you next time.
Music.