Erma Bombeck takes me back to my late teens and early twenties when I was trying to figure out how to be a wife and an adult all at the same time. She wrote funny things about house cleaning, something I have never found naturally entertaining. "Housework, if you do it right, will kill you". How about that for truth?! I will have to confess the obvious conclusion is correct, I have never done housework right.
Funny that the things I remember most, as nostalgia rolls in with the holiday season, are the things that made me laugh. There was the time I asked my eldest son what I could do to help him sit still during worship. He was about four or five years old at the time. He thought for a few moments and then said, "Well, Mom, church could be shorter." The moment was lost, how can you correct your child when you have tossed your head back and you are howling with laughter?! Or the time when we were standing in line at an amusement park waiting our turn to ride. My middle child, who was paying no attention to me at all, wrapped his arms around a leg wearing jeans, close to where I had been standing. The gentleman, to whom the leg belong, took it well. My son however did not! I got so tickled by that one, I had to apologize to most of the people standing in line. I giggle over it still today.
There was the Christmas my brother in law bought my sister underwear. Now, in fairness to my brother in law, my sister asked for underwear. He carefully discovered that she wore size 14 jeans so he bought her size 14 underwear. Those underwear were so large that all of us could have worn them together. I am not sure, but I think we did.
Or the time I cooked the pecan pie and forgot to take the wax paper liner out of the pie crust. The pie filling kept rising and rising and rising. We began a great count down, knowing that Vesuvius was about to blow! Or the first time I made homemade chili. No one told me,nor did I bother to read the directions, that you needed to soak beans over night. So I put them straight into the crock pot with the rest of the chili fixings. The beans were hard as rocks. In fact, we took the beans and started a rock garden. I will point out here that there are countless stories of my cooking, including the never ending lasagna and my famous turkey pops, but that no one has ever died from my cooking. At least it has never been a direct correlation.
I am grateful that God gives us the gift of laughter. At the end of the day, when truly the dust has settled and the smoke has cleared, it is the gift of humor that is my prized possession. I have certainly shed my fair share of tears, but never find them as comforting as I do a good laugh. I am grateful for those who find the humor in life and giggle. I am grateful that even in the dark places in my life, God has often blessed me with someone who would help me find something to laugh over. I know that much of life is not funny, there have been some very sad moments in mine. I have had those moments when I couldn't grin for any reason under the sun. Some of those memories are precious too, for God was especially near and carried me when I could not walk on my own. I know that we ought to be content in all circumstances, I just love the ones with laughter best!
May the joy of a good belly laugh be yours this year. May God bless you with a community of those who will laugh with you.
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