I recently picked up my 12 and 14 year old sons, along with their cousin, from a youth group night of fun with the other boys in their church group. They had a lot of fun with this group and when they got in the car my 12 year old was giddy with laughter. He just couldn’t stop laughing. It was really funny to watch him work through this fit of laughing that he could not control. It got the rest of us laughing along with him. He kept saying (through his laughs) that he couldn’t stop and he didn’t know why. We laughed about the work-out laughing gives you. It truly was hilarious.
When he finally got himself pulled together he said, “Wow, it really feels good to laugh like that!” And I couldn’t agree more. I know there are positive things that occur in your brain from laughter. Although I am not going to pretend to understand all of those technical things I can say that I have received the benefit of laughter in my day on so many occasions. My husband and I were on a short cruise last fall enjoying a few days without kids together and one of the nights (only one) we decided to go to the formal dining room to eat. When we were seated we both had a laugh attack. I don’t know why … truly I do not … but we couldn’t pull it together. When the waiter came to take my order I was almost unable to tell him what I wanted. Throughout our meal we just laughed. We had a couple sitting at the table next to us (they were a little bit older than us) and we apologized for our inability to stop laughing and that we just were going a little crazy. The wife said to us, “It is good to see you having fun” … I hope she wasn’t annoyed. The medicine that laughter brought us in that moment was crazy. It was therapeutic and fun. Maybe a little bit immature too, but therapeutic nonetheless. 🙂
I would encourage you to find times to just laugh. Daily life can bring many opportunities that pull you down too often. Take it from a 12 year old boy, rolling in a fit of laughter, that it really feels good to laugh! It is another natural way God has given us to keep us healthy. Thank you Lord for giving these crazy natural ways to regulate our bodies! Help us to remember the healing that things like laughter can bring!
