Cultivating The Quality Of Cheerfulness
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesSamuel Griswold Goodrich (1793–1860) was an American author, bookseller, and publisher who believed in the quality and healing properties of cheerfulness.
He wrote:
“Of all the virtues, cheerfulness is the most profitable. It makes the person who exercises it happy, and renders him acceptable to all he meets. While other virtues defer the day of recompense, cheerfulness pays down. It is a cosmetic, which makes homeliness graceful and winning; it promotes health, and gives clearness and vigor to the mind; it is the bright weather of the heart, in contrast with the clouds and gloom of melancholy. It is particularly susceptible of cultivation by exercise and repetition. It is infectious, and may be communicated to all around” (source).
Mr. Goodrich goes on to talk about the virtues of having the whole family take on the character trait of cheerfulness.
He must have been familiar with the inspired writings of Solomon, for Solomon said regarding cheerfulness:
“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit” (Proverbs 15:13 NIV).
And again:
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22 NIV).
Brethren and friends, as Mr. Goodrich suggests, let us “by exercise and repetition,” cultivate the quality of cheerfulness because of its infectious nature, so that it “may be communicated to all around.”