I’m letting the male side of Hannah Alexander’s personality shine today by example. He smiles a lot. That’s because he’s a happy person, but also because he’s a friendly person and was taught as a child that a smile would help him make better headway when interacting with others.

This smile seems to work for him. (It certainly works for me!) because he is well-loved in our community. The smile you see here is his attitude in life.

I’ve never seen anyone as easy to be with (yes, he’s my husband, so what?) and he’s taught me the truth about a gentle answer turning away wrath. When we were first married the only one of us who ever started a fight was me. I was on the defensive because I’d been in some relationships that made me feel as if I was being forced to fight for my life. But the first time I yelled at my husband, I saw the hurt in his face. I never forgot that look and tried to never see it again. As our marriage progressed I noticed an eagerness in him to make me happy, to get along, to be a peacemaker.

The attitude wore off on me. We don’t fight. We discuss, we debate, we see one another’s point of view, and we remain open to alternative options. We laugh a lot, we snuggle a lot, and we smile when we see each other–and working together in the clinic, that happens quite a bit during the day. That great attitude is because of my husband. He set the tone for our marriage, and over twenty years later it’s set in stone.

All I can say is if you want a happy relationship with anyone, try a smile, a kind word in place of an angry one, a tender heart. It takes practice. You might not receive the reaction you’d hoped for the first or second time you try it. Some people are simply toxic. In that case, I’d smile and avoid. But if you want good relationships, the more you give, I’ve found that with the right kind of people, the more you receive.