More Laughter and Joy
Sometimes we are so self-absorbed that we need a big dose of laughter to restore our joy. Especially if we are lonely. I found this to be true soon after I became a widow.
So, one day I pulled from my memory bank a poem I had memorized as a five-year-old girl. It reminded me that my world cannot just revolve around Me, Myself, and I. And it helped me laugh again!
My Tea Party
I had a little tea party
This afternoon at three.
It was very small
Three guests in all.
I, Myself and Me.
Myself ate up all the sandwiches
While I drank up the tea.
It was also I
Who ate the pie
And passed the cake
To Me.
(Author unknown)
Barbara Johnson, the late author and humorist, helped some people on their journey through grief by getting them to laugh. Though well acquainted with grief herself, Barbara was one of the most joyful people I have ever met. (She lost two grown sons).
In her book “Pack Up Your Gloomies in a Great Big Box, Then Sit On the Lid and Laugh!” she wrote:
“Humor helps to combat my own grief and helps me to accelerate the grief process for others…. Humor is not something to be used to make fun of a situation, only to make fun out of what seems to be a hopeless catastrophe. Folks need something that will help get them through the times when nothing seems to calm them, not even reminders of comfort from the Bible given by well-meaning Christian friends.
“It’s not that these scriptures aren’t true; it’s just that the pain is so intense you can’t appreciate what the words are saying right at that moment. Later these scripture verses can become very meaningful, but ironically they there were times during my own seasons of grief that the following observation made a kind of crazy sense to me: ‘Man cannot live by bread alone, he needs peanut butter too.’”1
Her audiences broke out in sidesplitting laughter as she shared her stories and encouraged them to find humor in everyday living. After our private conversations I always left Barbara with a smile on my face.
The headstone of a husband and wife buried in our local cemetery has chiseled on it their names and appropriate dates. Underneath are three words: “We Had Fun.” Can’t you just imagine what their marriage was like?
Laughing helps restore our joy and heads us toward a more positive emotional attitude. Even the silliest of comments or unusual events can turn our tickle box upside down. 2
Let’s allow God to “fill our mouths with laughter and our lips with shouts of joy.” (Job 8:21 NIV)
Prayer: Lord, thank You that you can heal our heart of disappointment, sadness, and pain. And that You can give us joy once again. Laughter for mourning. Thank You for our Savior, Jesus, who walked this earth and lived a life for us to follow. Amen.
Footnotes:
1.Barbara Johnson, Pack Up Your Gloomies in a Great Big Box, Then Sit On the Lid and Laugh! (Dallas, TX., Word, 1993) p.32.
2. Portions Excerpted from my book, Hope For A Widow’s Heart.
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