Laughter is Good Medicine

I just read an great article by Janie B. Cheaney in World Magazine, "Joy to the World." Her first sentence pulled me in "Babies are born knowing how to cry, but they have to learn how to laugh." She goes on to talk about how a sense of unexpectedness can cause a baby, at a certain time to laugh. It is one of the best things to see when it happens. One of nephews loved his baby brothers & sister...sometimes too much. He always wanted to touch them, get in their face, and protect them. Even though he's now 12, he's continues to be extremely attentive. He had a way of getting the babies to laugh like no one else. He tried hard, and his efforts paid off for us all. You've got to love those baby belly laughs!

While watching my friend's twin baby boys, I took them both in the kitchen with me (in their bouncing chairs) and proceeded to make pancakes while they watched. Who knew that the simple act of flipping a pancake would cause these little guys to laugh & smile for a good 15 minutes? It's an image permanently imprinted in my "joy box."

I like having a "joy box" full of fun memories. I love to laugh. I love to make others laugh. Even on the worst days I can find something to bring me joy and laughter, but it's true...sometimes you have to look for it. Cheaney's article goes on to say the following:

No sorrow on earth has ever come near the sorrow of the cross; no abandonment has ever equaled that suffered by the Son; no necessity was ever so grim as that which put Him there. Yet He endured it "for the joy that was set before Him." We who believe are little children, just experienced enough to be surprised. Yes, care weighs us down, but the irrepressible joy of the universe occasionally pops out and reveals itself, and our youth is renewed like the eagle's.

"There was some one thing," Chesterton wrote, "that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth." While low in the grave He lay, the world was not surprised; this is its way. But up from the grave He arose, and the world was turned on its head.

So happy that we can share in this most amazing joy. Let's live our lives laughing.

To help you do that, take a joy break and watch this: