Laughter is the Best Medicine!

Laughter is the Best Medicine!

Blog – 6-14-17

Proverbs 17:22 says:

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Our loving, creative, wonderful God formed our bodies in such a way that enjoying life, being positive and laughing till you cry actually makes us healthier. Science has finally caught up with the Bible, and research proves that laughter increases blood flow, helps your number of T-cells and your immunity to illness go up, helps relieve pain, lowers your blood pressure, reduces certain stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, and helps increase your memory and learning. Pretty cool! Sounds a whole lot better than having dried up bones!

When I think about this truth, it makes me see God’s love at a whole new level. How amazing to think that His desire is that we are happy. As a parent, what do we desire most for our kids? We want them to be happy, right. God feels the exact same way about us. He hates to see us living with a crushed spirit and dried up bones. He wants us to be happy and healthy!

God gave me a beautiful gift as I spent five days last week in the Black Hills for a family reunion. You could definitely call it laughter therapy because we did a lot of laughing. I mean a lot! It was the laugh-till-you-cry kind of moments all week long as we told stories, teased each other, and found humor in most everything. I feel very blessed that I have such a close-knit family and we truly enjoy each other’s company, and I’m incredibly grateful for our little getaway. Here is a picture of part of our crazy group at Mount Rushmore.

As Christians, our goal is to become more and more like Jesus. When we think about that, we typically focus on the hard things like humility, self-control, serving others, etc. While these are certainly things we need to strive for, I believe we can’t forget how much Jesus enjoyed life and lived it to the absolute fullest. So if we want to truly be more like Jesus, which we should all want to do, then we can’t fulfill our unique purpose unless we also enjoy life like He did.

How are you doing in this area? Are you taking time to recharge your batteries? Are you making time for you? How long since you’ve laughed until you cried?

Solomon reminds us in Proverbs 17:

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens….

a time to weep and a time to laugh”

Summer is the perfect time to slow down a bit, connect with friends and family, pack a picnic, watch the Three Stooges, have a good belly laugh. If you can’t find something to laugh about, maybe you are taking yourself and life too seriously. Don’t wait until your problems are solved before you enjoy your life because that, my friend, will never happen. We will always have problems, but learning to laugh in the middle of them is choosing to enjoy life, no matter what.

Humor is one of God’s gifts to us. Accept it. Cultivate it. Find it in the midst of your everyday life. Laugh at your mistakes instead of beating yourself up about them. God created us to enjoy life, and He wants us to be happy and healthy. So remember, laughter is the best medicine!

Hugs and love, Jill