Faithful Friday: Be Contagious

So, I've suffered from the ick going around this week.  I'm fairly certain it is thanks to my co-workers, as two different strains of icky have swiped through the majority of us in the office.  Like dominoes, we've fallen one by one.  And as such, I've shared the wealth with most of my family at home.  Tina, our lucky girl with super immunity, is the only one I know who has escaped the path of nasal destruction.

Sickness isn't something I ever want to share with someone and I do my best to both avoid giving and receiving this unwelcome gift.  Sanitizers -from industrial size pumps to mini travel size- can usually be found within hands reach.  I wash my hands obsessively.  Vitamin C is ingested in super doses at the first hint of illness.  Fogs of Lysol are sprayed in a protective bubble around or behind me.  Yet, without fail, I normally will contract whatever it is anyway.

This morning, on the way to work and listening to K-LOVE, they shared a story about 9 things you didn't know were contagious.  Of course my mind went to the worst...

But #6 made me smile.  In fact, it was the only positive one on the list!

6. Joy. It turns out it isn't even necessary to have direct contact with someone (or their pheromones!)
 for their feelings to rub off on you. A study published in 2013 with the Public Library of Science's publication, 
PLoS ONE, found that

people can catch another person's happiness

by watching someone else watching the joyful person.

"Our emotions can quickly and subtly be transmitted to others, even if it's unintentional,"

says Guillaume Dezecache, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland.

And they can make a big impact.

And I thought...hey, that is one thing I do want to be contagious with!

What better thing to spread around than JOY.

So go ahead....Go out and spread some today!

 "For I have great joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother."  Philemon 1:7  (HCSB)