LIVE WELL, LOVE MUCH, LAUGH OFTEN

Monday, I talked about the benefits of humor. Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived said, “...he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast” (Proverbs 15:15, NKJV).

Laughter has many psychological and physiological benefits:

1) It reduces the detrimental effects of stressful life experiences, as evidenced by studies conducted at the University of California and the University of Waterloo.

2) It dispels anger.

Thank the Lord! A few years ago, our marriage was in some serious need of stress reduction and anger dispelling.

It happened this way...

Milton and I had just gotten a brand new car. You know how it is with a brand new car. You're proud of it, and you're thankful for it--until the first payment arrives, Milton likes to joke. Then the reality of the responsibility sets in. You're also protective of it. You don't want a scratch on it. With this car, we hadn't even gotten the payment book in the mail; it was that new.

We took our old car to the body shop to be painted, and several days later, they called and said it was ready. So we headed over there. But when Milton went in the shop, they told him they were sorry but it wouldn't be ready until the next day.

He got back in the car, cranked up, and backed out.

But he failed to see a post...

And he smashed the front fender...

I think I saw steam coming out of his ears...

I shrieked, "Praise the Lord!"

He glowered at me. "And just what are we praising the Lord for?"

I smiled my biggest smile. "I'm praising the Lord you're driving and I'm not!"

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I know. He's a preacher. But he was a very young preacher when this happened, and I guess when he hit the post and smashed the fender, he was thinking of the money it was going to cost us and here, we hadn't even made a payment, and he was probably frustrated with himself, angry even...

But when I said that, he started laughing, and then I started laughing, and I'm telling you, our laughter reduced the stress in that car that day, and it also dispelled anger.

P.S. We were certainly sitting in the right spot--a body shop! Couldn't resist saying that.

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Experts tell us you can raise your humor quotient. One way you can do this is to try to see humor in situations and then magnify them.

I recently saw a plaque...

LIVE WELL. LOVE MUCH. LAUGH OFTEN.

I like the ring to that.

LIVE WELL. LOVE MUCH. LAUGH OFTEN.

Try laughing more. It'll help you--and those around you!