The Sunshiny Woman

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 2, 1902

The Sunshiny Woman

“WHEN we come to count over the qualities that endear our friends to us, almost all of us think first of cheerfulness,” says a writer in a contemporary. Sunshiny men or women, who bring a bright thought or word, or even a glad smile with them, are always welcome as the first flowers in May. Each heart knows its own bitterness; each soul has its own troubles and trials and vexations; and so we turn to the one who can lighten our sadness with the radiance of a cheerful spirit. Sunshine of the soul is largely a matter of cultivation; for there are few so fortunate as not to have some grief. The selfish sit down and brood over their sorrows. They give themselves up to fits of despondency and moodiness, and are a kind of moral wet blanket on the pleasure of all with whom they come in contact. They tell you their sorrows and bedew you with tears until it seems there must be a kind of luxury of woe in which they rejoice. After all, the cheerful spirit is but an example of “that brave attitude toward life” of which Stevenson wrote.

It is the courageous bearing of inevitable burdens, a determination not to fret, and not to add to the sorrows of the world the griefs of one’s own heart. A woman who had many sorrows and heavy

burdens to bear, but who was noted for her cheerful spirits, once said in explanation: “You know I have had no money; I had nothing I could give but myself, and so I made the resolution that I would never sadden any one else with my troubles. I have laughed when I could have wept. I have always smiled in the face of every misfortune. I have tried never to let any one go from my presence without a happy word or a bright thought to carry with him. And happiness makes happiness. I myself am happier than I would have been had I sat down and bemoaned my fate.”

This gospel of happiness is one that every woman should lay to heart. What it means to a man to come home at night to a cheerful wife no one but he who has to fight the hard battle of life knows. If he is prosperous, it is an added joy; but it is in misfortune that it shines like a star in the darkness. A complaining wife can kill the last bit of hope and courage in a sorely troubled heart, while a cheerful one gives new courage to begin the fight over again.

The mother who lets her children grow up to be moody and discontented, subject to blues and sulks, is failing in her first duty. She is handicapping them in the race of life. Cheerfulness is one of the prime requisites to success and happiness. The sunshiny man or woman has every one for a friend, for this sad old earth must borrow its mirth; it has sorrows enough of its own.—Selected.