Laughter

"It is a burnt offering to the Lord; it is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord." (Exodus 29:18 NKJV).

Now what does that verse have to do with laughter? I don't know! I don't see it either!!!! But after I read this verse I had visions of my adult children laughing!!!!! Now I don't know what you think of visions, but I just saw, with my mind's eye, images of each of my children really having a good laugh. It was so beautiful to me!

The first was Caleb. He was laughing and his eyes were just shining with joy. Then Luke's face flashed before my eyes! And he was really, really laughing! Then Josiah, Josh, and Ashli followed, each one just bubbling with healthy, contagious, laughter! It was like a sweet aroma to me this morning! I couldn't help but feel joy rise in my heart as I meditated on my children's happy faces. 

Many times laughter has been the glue that has held our family together. Every time we vacationed stresses would nearly overtake our journey. Especially for me. It was a huge job getting all seven of us somewhere, even to church on Sunday mornings! But to pack for a week was HUGE. 

The task was daunting for a woman who does not major in organizational skills! I would usually despair before we were in the car, usually having lost my desire to travel at all. But since everything would finally be in the car, off we would go. I could not bear the thought of unpacking right then either! 

With five kids and four of them boys, you can probably imagine some of our mishaps and misfortunes! Some were unimaginable!  It was absolutely crazy sometimes!!!! 

But night would come and we would all settle in a motel room. There would not even be room to make a path to the bathroom, the floor was completely carpeted in kids. We would all be snuggled in and then it would start. 

Someone would bring up an event from the day and the giggles would begin. Then another would remember something, that possibly wasn't even funny at the time, but reflection would bring near hysteria to the situation, and volatile laughter would just explode! This would go on and on until at we would get a call or a knock on the door from the hotel staff telling us that they were getting complaints about us! Our neighbors were wondering what kind of party we were having anyway! We should be restrained before we caused considerable damage to hotel property. 

Well, this made it even more difficult to control ourselves. Have you ever gotten the giggles when the situation was supposed to be serious, and you just couldn't help yourself? If so, you can relate to our dilemma. Their call would only fuel the fire of our giddiness. Oh, we were in trouble! Deep trouble! Again!!!!

Looking back, I don't remember all of the places that we took our dear ones, or their responses. However, I will never forget the laughter we shared every time we journeyed from home. It would not have been the same if we had not been all piled in the same room! That was the most fun we ever had on any of our trips away. 

My mom was having a tough day yesterday. It was Father's Day. We buried her older brother last week. My dad and her dad (grandpa) are both gone. It is kind of a hard day for that reason.

 Well, Scotty decided to lighten up the whole situation. He had been outside working on my wandering rose bushes and he came in disgustingly sweaty. His shirt could have been wrung out, leaving a puddle. So instead of just taking it off, he took it off like he was doing a striptease act, swinging his little behind, and humming a little tune. My mom laughed so hard I thought she was going to wet her pants! And she was sitting next to me!!!! He does these kinds of things all the time to make me laugh, but I have never seen him so bold as to do his little dance in front of our parents.

For those of you with vulgar imaginations, he was not gross! Our parents are not into gross! He was just funny!!!! 

Well, he enjoyed the laughter so much, he just kept up his antics!!! He didn't remove any more clothing, but he continued to be silly! It was good! It was funny! He left the room finally and returned in a fresh clean shirt. A whole lot of heaviness that had hung in the air had seemed to depart with him and he returned to a fresh new environment. 

Laughter is good for the soul. There are healing powers in our laughter. It is good to laugh at oneself. These are not really scriptures, but there are scriptures about laughter. Do you have a favorite scripture about laughter? Or how about a favorite funny moment?  I hope that you do!I would love to hear your stories. Please share!

I hope you have many reasons to laugh today!!! 

Many blessings to you, friends!

Cheri