HELEN SANDERS
9-16-2021
LAUGHTER IS A MEDICINE
We have all met that one person that is never happy. No matter what you say they never laugh. They are miserable and if you are around them you feel miserable too. You avoid them like a plague. I want to relate a story to you about a couple that were about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. In fact, I gave them an anniversary party.
I told this couple this “joke.” It went like this: “There was a couple that had been married almost 50 years. Every day of their marriage they fought like cats and dogs. They stayed together but were miserable. Their 50th anniversary approached, and their children gave them a party. After the party was over the wife told her husband that she was tired of all the fighting, and she had prayed to the Lord to take one of them home. Then she added, “And when He does, I am going to live with my sister in Pennsylvania.”
I had told that story to a lot of people and everyone laughed because they could relate. When this couple heard this story, they didn’t smile. They didn’t laugh. There was dead silence. Perhaps it hit too close to home because they were such unhappy individuals. They rarely smiled and I never heard them laugh.
Laughter is a medicine. In Proverbs 17:22 it says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” The word merry means gleeful, glad, joyful (making merry), merry hearted and rejoicing.
We are told in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again, I say rejoice.” This tells us we are to be constantly in a joyful state. It is medicine! It keeps us from being sick and keeps our bones from drying up. (arthritis.)
I felt very sorry for that couple that they lived such miserable unhappy lives, but it was their choice. Both have had serious health problems. Do you think it would have been different if they had joy in their lives? I do.
I pray that you laugh a lot, and praise a lot, and have a joyful spirit! It is medicine for you.
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