Nancy Hughes: She sure knows how to laugh

“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”

Job 8:21 (NIV)

I come from a long line of laugh/cryers. You can quickly identify anyone in my family because when we laugh, we cry. It sounds strange, but it’s true. My sisters and I have mascara running down our faces most of the time when we laugh.

And my brother (if he wore mascara) is the same way. Our shoulders shake, too, and we clap our hands together. A mental picture might make one think we resemble seals slapping their flippers together but I assure you, it’s just laughter. While we all experience sadness when laughter is inappropriate, there are moments when laughter makes tough situations seem not so tough.

 

Let me give you some examples: the time a total stranger walked up to me at WalMart and declared - loudly - “I wish I didn’t care how I looked and had the courage to wear my hair like yours!” Or when a woman remarked to me (after my husband passed away) “You wouldn’t feel so bad if you had my husband.”

How about the day I got to the checkout at a discount store and found that I had picked up the only package of personal products without a price on it and the clerk had to call over the intercom: “Hey, Daisy, we need a price check on a 24-count package of . . .” And then there was that phone call from the cleaners to let me know that I had forgotten to pick up a pair of pants and when I stopped in to get them, realized they were UNDERpants! (For the record, I have no idea how they got there!)

The encouragement to me when the “stuff” of everyday situations in life pushes me to fill my mouth with anger, gossip, or hateful words is found in Job 8:21: “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”

When I can learn to react with laughter, my heart will be full of “shouts of joy” instead of whining and complaining or being offended. How about you? Can you relate? Long after the situation is over, you will be remembered for the words that you spoke. Either they will cause heartache, shame, and embarrassment or they will affirm the love of Jesus in your life because you showed mercy and forgiveness.

People are always sharing how they want to be remembered. Dr. James Dobson said that his mother wanted one sentence printed on her tombstone: “I told you I was sick!” As for me, there’s no doubt that I want to be remembered as a Christian wife and mother but after that, there is only one sentence that counts: “She sure knew how to laugh!”

Father, please help me to remember how blessed I am and to keep my mouth and heart filled with laughter. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

Think of a tough situation that you faced recently.

Did you become angry and offended or did you respond with laughter?

Apply

Journal a few situations in which your response should have been laughter but instead you reacted completely opposite.

Beside each entry, write down how you could have changed the outcome if you had chosen laughter and a smile. Be ready for the next opportunity to choose laughter.

Power

Job 8:21 (NIV) “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”

Psalm 126:2 (NIV) “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’”

Ecclesiastes 3:4 (NIV) “. . . a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance . . .”

 (For more of Nancy Hughes' writing, check out her blog, Encouragement from the War Room.)