This week I saw a video of Ellen DeGeneres explaining why she was sitting next to President George Bush at a Cowboys football game.  She was funny and humorous explaining how this happened and her key point was we should be kind to everyone, not just to people we agree with and who agree with us.  (A timely and important message—by the way.)

Ellen DeGeneres also explained that she wasn’t really cheering for the Cowboys, but for the other team, the Packers, whose quarterback was her friend. She had to hide her Cheese hat, while sitting in the box.

That reminded me of something that happened to our boys when they were 9 and 11.  They had been invited to the local college coach’s box, as their good friend was the college coach’s son.  The home team was playing Boston College.  Boston College is their grandfather’s alma mater.  So- my boys wore Boston College sweatshirts to sit in the box.   Fortunately, their friend’s mom had a great sense of humor and was a wise woman.   According to my sons, she laughed at the sweatshirts they were wearing and then she gave my sons two oversized t-shirts displaying the local colleges’ logo to wear during the game.

We still laugh about this incident.  It illustrates the point of this blog—laughter can bring us together and diffuse tense situations.  It can restore perspective.

Here’s another situation where laughter saved the moment:  Just yesterday, my daughter was looking for an apple corer.  She had left this implement out –dirty on the counter. She asked me if I knew where it was.  I told her, I had taken care of it, my exact words were, “I probably washed it and put it away, because that’s just the kind of mom I am.”  Instead, we found the corer in the sink, under a plate.  I laughed and said, “Yup, that’s just the kind of mom I am.”  My daughter laughed, and repeated, “That’s just the kind of mom you are.”  We dissolved in laughter, and it was a bright moment for us.

I could have gotten upset with her for leaving the apple corer out on the counter– (we have rules about these things—rules that are ignored frequently.)  She could have gotten upset when she wasn’t finding it – (oh wait she did get upset) J  But laughter—diffused the situation and even made it a bonding moment for the two of us.

 Often, my husband and I can be disagreeing with each other, and then one of us will change the tone of the conversation, just by bringing humor into it.   We laugh and wonder what we were really getting so upset over.

After we lost our son Sean, I thought about that a great deal.  I would look back and wonder why I was getting so upset over so many stupid things.   The things I thought were so important, were not important at all.  In fact, most of the things I got upset over, were rather trivial in the grand scheme of things.    Jesus talked about this with Martha and Mary, (this story is found in Luke 10:38-42)—he said to Martha that she was worried and bothered about so many things, but Mary had chosen the better part, and that would not be taken away from her.  Mary had chosen to spend time with Jesus.   Mary wanted to sit at His feet and listen to His stories and treasure the time she had with Him.  I want to do the same thing—I want to treasure Jesus, the One who loves me and gave Himself for me.  The One who died to give me an eternal relationship with Him.

I am going to say something at the risk of people thinking I’m a little cuckoo – God and I have laughed together.  I talk with Him in my mind  throughout the day, just as I would talk to a friend, and He talks back to me—in my mind, and often, we laugh. 

 My hope for you is that your life will be filled with laughter— So Be Encouraged!!