Smiles

I don't think that you can get much closer to heaven than smiling. It is a sensation that I love. I love to think about smiling, I love to make other people want to smile, I love to induce smiling, laughing, any of the related emotions. I think that is one reason that I am sufficiently happy in life. It is an interesting thing to consider.

Do our thoughts really influence who we are as much as some people say

I think so. If you are focused on the negative then it tends to exude from their presence. If they focus on being happy they are happy. If we focus on Christ then every good thing is ours to claim. 

That is mercy. 

To know that Christ came to suffer for our sins, but also to show us the way to be truly happy. His thoughts were always centered on the Father. What would He do if he were here. What would He say if they had asked Him. In so doing he reached out to the one. 

I may only be able to reach out to the one, but I can reach out to the one. 

I can put my own selfish desires aside and do something for someone. 

I can take a minute to send a text to someone in need. 

I can go out of my way to do something that is nice for someone else.

I often take out much more than that for myself.