It Increases Your Faith Value

In the movie Steel Magnolias, which came out in theaters in 1990 or maybe 1989, the character Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton) says: "Smile! It increases your face value!" Probably many of us have been told, or seen at one time or another, the church-sign variant: "Smile! It increases your faith value!"

When I started intentionally to smile more often, it was for cosmetic reasons.

Having graduated from divinity school with an M.Div. degree, I enrolled in a year of postgraduate study at a Lutheran seminary for required courses in Lutheran history, worship leadership, polity, and practices. In the second half of the year, I noticed that, at just-turned-42, the way my face was structured would lead to deep grooves from the outer edges of my mouth down my chin, twin rivers of life's baggage.

My mouth at rest naturally has a slight downturn at the ends. It requires a bit of muscle movement to counteract that. It occurred to me that I could perhaps slow down the formation of those grooves if I were to be more mindful of holding my mouth at intentionally neutral. (Never mind the whole issue of: "You've got to hold your mouth right" to perform, successfully, some minor annoying action such as getting the remote to work, unlocking a door, or opening a can.)

In the spring of 2009 - ten years ago, wow - I chose to be intentional about frowning less. Of late, because my poor-vision eyes have done quite a bit of hard ocular labor all my life, it's wise to take care not to strain them. Just recently, I've chosen to spend much less time browsing social media on my phone, for example. And part of what prompted that decision? Was the realization that I was squinting and frowning automatically when doing much of that stuff on my phone.

What's shifted in the last decade? It seems that what started as wanting to increase my face value has been a seed that, having fallen to the ground, has taken root and is beginning to put forth a few little green shoots toward increasing my faith value.

It turns out that all the jocular, well-meaning advice about smiling, and looking at the big picture, and remembering to breathe ... have all moved me in the direction of more closeness with God.

Imagine what could happen if you and I choose to be intentional about our own face values.