Kathy and I have been bringing you a series of “Life Tools” in our Chapel/Church messages at each NASCAR K&N Pro Series even this year and this one can be added to the series, even though I chose to post it on Facebook May 1st. The series are free to be passed on to others and meant to be used privately or in a group discussion as you see fit, but as always, free of charge and not meant to cost you financially unless you determine to seek a Christian Counselor in your home town because it is the logical step to your healing and personal growth. With that made completely plain let me continue.
I got thinking about what I read this morning in my short Our Daily Bread devotional and remembered this as a tried and true method of healing especially during the difficult times. Today’s writer Lisa Samra called it a “Biblical Prescription” and so it is. Often those are simply the best. Let me reword Lisa’s wisdom a little bit since I have been sharing sort of a “Tools for Life” series at my church services at the track and this fits into that collection.
It reads: Greg and Elizabeth have a regular “Joke Night” with their four school-age children. Each person brings several jokes they’ve read or heard (or made up themselves!) during the week to tell at the dinner table. This tradition has created joyful memories of fun shared around the table over the years. They noticed the laughter was healthy for not only their children, but also for themselves as it lifted their spirits on difficult days.
The benefit of joyful conversation around the dinner table was observed by C. S. Lewis, who wrote, “The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal.”
The wisdom of fostering a joyful heart is found in Proverbs 17:22, where we read, “A cheerful heart is good medicine and brings healing, but a broken and crushed spirit dries up the bones and saps a person’s strength.” The proverb offers a “prescription” to stimulate health and healing—allowing joy to fill our hearts with a medicine that costs little but readily yields great results.
We all need this biblical prescription. When we bring joy and laughter into our conversations, it can put a disagreement into perspective. It can help us to experience peace, even after a stressful test at school or a difficult day at work., or even a Mom’s disastrous day at home! Laughter among family and friends can create a safe place where we both know and feel that we’re loved and valuable.
Do you need to incorporate more laughter into your life as “good medicine” for your spirit? Remember, you have encouragement from Scripture in multiple places besides Proverbs 17:22 to cultivate a cheerful heart. Simply take some quiet time to dig some out or even make it a dinner project to each bring an encouraging scripture to the table to share. Proverbs 15:13 in the same vein: “A glad heart makes a happy face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.”
There are also numerous places where scripture takes this wisdom and comes at it from the opposite side in a warning to us. So don’t be fooled by our enemy, the deceiver, and think God is saying to be this way or its the norm. It is not. it just His way of teaching us to test the voice of whom it is from.
Now, I confess that personally, no matter how hard I try, I never remember jokes even when the joke is so good my eyes tearing from laughter and I cannot wait to tell Kathy when I get home, or bring it to the track next time. Its so frustrating, but I love other people’s good humor during a difficult day when dealing with life’s challenges.we are ALL gifted differently and that gift is not mine for sure. Chances are you may remember a case where I was attempting to remember the punchline and cannot or even say it logically. Oh well, that’s me!
So thanks Thanks Lord for this gift of joy to fill our hearts and share with each other no matter if it is rarely me or someone else gifted to do this.