Recently in my Quiet Time while reading Psalm 37, one of my favorite Psalms, I was struck by verses 12 and 13, “The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him; for He sees his day is coming.” After watching the many news shows on TV and realizing how fast our world is changing, those verses seemed more relevant than ever. Our religious beliefs and patriotism are being attacked daily and also our way of life as we have known it. It made me wonder how long God was going to keep laughing at it before He got serious about doing something about it. My timetable never seems to line up with the Lord’s, I always want things done sooner.

And then I remembered that God waited until it was too late for Sarah to have a baby, and then when she was told she would have a son, she laughed. As a woman past childbearing age, I can imagine laughter, even hysterical laughter, at being told that I was pregnant! But God had a plan for Abraham and Sarah, and He wanted to carry it out in a way that everyone would know that only God could do it. His plan is always perfect both for us and for the situation. She laughed when she first heard of the plan, but her son brought great love and joy into her life.

Recently I was having a little relationship problem and was feeling really hurt in the process. Even after it was resolved I was still feeling bad and I called my good friend Carlene and we discussed it. There are so many things that happen in our daily life that we have to cope with and learn how to handle, and even as we are older we still have a lot to deal with in our ever expanding families. It’s important to have a good friend to discuss things with and sometimes in the discussion you see how to settle it. It also releases some of the tension and you can relax just getting it out. After we hung up I know she was praying for me and called me later in the day to see how I was doing. As we were talking, we were listing some of the things we deal with as we get older and just started laughing at how our lives change over the years. That seems to be what always happens when we talk, we end up laughing a lot about life, and we always relax and feel better when we hang up. Sure, we have problems in life, but Jesus came that we might have joy, and that our joy would be full. We think of all the wonderful blessings there are surrounding us every day, and the problems seem less difficult to cope with. With God, nothing is impossible, and He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. Laughing with friends is one of God’s greatest pleasures for us to enjoy.

I couldn’t end this without sharing how we were the cause of a great deal of laughter many years ago in Havre, Montana. In the sixties, we were living in Havre and Toby was managing a western store. We had a trailer several miles from town, with a big arena, and Toby and his friends roped calves every evening. He heard about a great calf horse for sale in Kalispell that was out of Texas, and managed to get it one fall right before we had one of the coldest winters on record. It got down to 70 below zero chill factor, and never above 20 below for 22 days, and that Texas horse was still slick from that warm weather. Our barn had freezing wind pouring through the haphazard walls and that poor horse was shaking so bad he was jumping up and down. Toby decided the best thing to do was to put the horse in the walk-in basement that we had under our trailer, and keep him there during the worst part of the cold spell. We kept him down there for 3 weeks, until the weather got a little warmer, and by then everyone was laughing and shaking their heads every time they saw us. Someone told us recently that some of the old timers are still laughing about that. You ranchers understand about saving the critters, I know, but you probably never had a horse living with you! And added to housekeeping duties was shoveling out the basement! You just gotta laugh!!! 

It’s good to look back and remember the things you got through over the years and have a good laugh in the process. Life is serious enough, but a good laugh eases the tension and lets you relax a while. It really is good medicine. 

And don’t ever forget, God loves you and is watching over you. Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?”