As a young man, I have always desired to be surrounded by person who cheer me as I invest my strength cheerfully in anything that I do. My quest led me into seeking for more understanding about how to cheer and be cheerful as a person.
The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defined to Cheer as a shout of joy, support or praise. It can also mean to give hope, comfort and encouragement. While Cheerful means happy and showing it by the way that you behave or giving a feeling of happiness. With the aforementioned meanings, it is obvious that people need someone to encourage them and someone that is cheerful needs to extrude happiness regardless of the circumstances at hand.
You need to cheer yourself, which means you have to be your greatest fan but with a consciousness of the impending judgement. Ecc. 11:9 says "Rejoice, o young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of their youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement."
Your Spouse needs to be cheered. Every union has to be oiled regularly if it will last a lifetime. The Bible admonish that from the beginning of marriage. The man is expected to cheer his wife as found in the book of Deut 24:5 "when a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken". The big question, do you cheer your spouse at all available opportunity?
We need to cheer others. Jesus in the new testament used the word cheer on several occasions in his interaction with a sick man in Mat 9:2 and to his disciples whenever they are disturbed examples are in Mat 14:27 and Mark 6:50. At their slightest confusion, he encouraged them. In John 16: 33 he charged them to be of good cheer because he had overcome the world. Paul too did likewise in Acts 27 and at the end of the storm, they all merried. If he had not been so close to them, he would not be able to understand their personality at every time when they are confused. As a leader, be readily available to encourage your followers.
Interestingly, being cheerful begins from within too. The Bible says in Proverbs 15:13 "a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart is the spirit broken.” The Dake Annotated Reference Bible describes it as a happy disposition shows in the countenance. The big question, are you always looking happy?
Likewise we need to be cheerful to be able to cheer up others. Rom12:8 "he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness". We need to visit others to cheer them up but we should not compound the situation of the depressed by telling other depressing tales. In today's parlance, we should motivate them.
In all, how bright do our faces look when we come to the house of God with our offerings and when we are supposed to give others. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians 9:7 wrote, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver."
In our earthly sojourn, we need to cheer ourselves, our spouses and others while being cheerful is evident around ourselves, others and finally God. Would you always carry a cheerful disposition at all times for it might be the only encouragement needed by someone to have a memorable day and in fact, a memorable lifetime.
Olutayo IRANTIOLA