Lightly Sweetened

This is my problem.

I haven't been able to create a blog post header that I really really like. 
Who wants to create one for me? Something awesome. I'll give you a shout out AND try to win you something cool in a sweepstakes *disclaimer: It's very hard to win cool things in sweepstakes in which case I will offer you unconditional love which is subject to daily mood swings.

That being said, I'm using this new one for now. And that's all I have to say about that. 

As I've mentioned before, I don't particularly care for the taste of artificial sweetener. As a result, I tend to avoid products with labels that broadcast a product as lightly sweetened. I'm saying give me the full sweet or give me death! Patrick Henry would be so proud. Recently as I was mulling over my dislike for products that fit the lightly sweetened category, my rather random brain navigated it's way to people that fit the bill.

I'm wondering if anyone knows people like I do that are perpetually in a bad mood. 
Grumpy, if you will. Something like this (minus the sunburn):

Not this:

Actually, my grumpy face didn't quite have the frown I was going for, but I'm not great at whipping out my phone for a selfie when I feel like karate chopping happy things. 

Evan on the other hand, has fully mastered the frown (as seen above), but that is not the grumpy frown. That is the "givememymomrightnowidon'tlikestrangerdanger" frown. Please keep the two straight. Sheesh.

This all came up because this verse came about in my bible study last week:

Ecclesiastes 8:1(b) New Living Translation (NLT)

Wisdom lights up a person’s face,
    softening its harshness

Immediately thoughts of grumpy people I know flashed across the screen of my mind. Because I have one of those screens. Mine is HD full color. So. 

I really do think there are unhappy people who could use a little boat load of wisdom in their life to brighten not only their day, but the day of those they surround themselves with. It's wise to seek God's direction in your life. It's wise to choose God's way of living rather than the world's way. Actually, I have a picture to illustrate this that I've been dying to use (not literally).

Most people relate those words to marriage, and of course that can be true, but I don't. When I came across this picture, the first thought that came to my mind is how true it is spiritually. If you take the time to invest in reading God's word and spending time with Him in prayer, guess what. The grass is greener on God's side. Sin doesn't look so appealing anymore. 

Ha. Wisdom.

That makes me smile.

I used to work with a lady that won't be named even though she doesn't read my blog. She was negative all day long until negative ran out and she had to rely on her pessimism reserves to finish out the day.

Now I firmly believe if she only had a little wisdom, she'd have been able to turn that frown upside down. Like this, see?:

On the other hand, I have a friend who is wise. You can tell by her smile.

That's Stacie and her wise friend Me. Stacie has helped me navigate the torturous waters of school and the influence it has on children. Ha. "torturous waters." Totally made that up. Who cares that it makes no sense. We've had long talks about the power of prayer and how to win sweepstakes. And how to pray to win sweepstakes. (kidding!) Something I feel compelled to reveal about her that I just recently discovered...is this:

That's right friends. Stacie eats the tops off of muffins. 

That's when I really knew she was wise. Just read  Proverbs 25:16 in the ESV:

If you have found honey, muffins eat only enough for you,

    lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

(paraphrased)

Speaking of food. We have a this awesome doughnut place in Colorado Springs called Amy's Donuts.

Don't they have a pretty box?

Wisdom told me not to eat 5 doughnuts in rapid succession.

Clearly wisdom runs through my veins like blood and coffee because smiling's my favorite.