By GARY ANDREWS
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Being an emotional person and unable to hold back tears when something happens, whether good or bad, is a trait that many people have. I am one of those people and my sister is the same.
Tears of joy always fill my eyes when I am watching television and it is relating a story of a veteran coming home and seeing his family for the first time in many months. To see the tears of joy from his family, wife, and children brings out my tears because of the feelings that are going on at that time.  I guess I relish in the fact that tears of joy were shed when I had the opportunity of coming home from Vietnam and seeing my family and girlfriend, who is now my wife of 42 plus years. These are tears of happiness and no one should ever be ashamed of shedding them.
Then there are tears of sadness when someone is hurt or we lose a loved one. There have been  /times when I have had to be strong for my wife and my children in the loss of a parent and grandparent. Many times after this I have been by myself and shed many tears over these losses because I also lost loved ones. Crying is not anything new for me because I have done this all of my life. Through my years in the newspaper industry I have seen and witnessed stories of children being burned in house fires that I had never met and probably would have never met had their tragic stories not had happened. There have been stories of teenagers killed in automobile accidents and I grieved hard for the parents because I wonder how I could have lived had I lost one of my children. Even for these I have shed tears and prayed many times for the parents and grandparents. Most of the time I would shut the door to my office and take 15 or 20 minutes to sit behind my desk and regain my composure before I would speak to anyone. Having time alone with God is the best medicine for understanding that anyone could ask for.
In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 we read that God has given us a time for every purpose under heaven.  We may not understand these times and our emotions are God given and we should show them without fear or reservation. Even the day I retired and left the newspaper industry for good I was happy and sad all over. I had tears of happiness and sadness at the same time but I understood this was one of the seasons that God had given me and I was to make the change.
One of the biggest moments of my entire life was when each of my children and two of my grandchildren walked the aisles of the church and publicly professed their acceptance of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. My eyes were full of tears, as was my wife’s, because we know that without any hesitation that when we leave this world we will rejoice in heaven because our children will be joining us at their appointed time. These were tears of great happiness.
When someone sees you shedding tears do not be upset or try to hide them. Tears are natural and God’s way of us showing emotion. There is an old saying, “Tears are words the heart can’t express.” How true this is. Remember tears are a language that God understands.
Prayer:  Lord thank you for another day of life and the opportunity to witness happiness and sadness. Guide me in the direction you would have me go and let me be the one that will lead someone to you. Thank you for the emotions that you have allowed me to have. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – Ecclesiastes 3:1-22; Monday – Judges 10:11-14; Tuesday – Psalm 126:1-6; Wednesday – 2 Timothy 1:3-7; Thursday – Jeremiah 31:7-9; Friday – Revelation 21:1-4; Saturday – John 15:9-17.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals.com.