Laugh–It’s Good for You!

I love it when science confirms what we already know to be true because the bible tells us the same thing! According to the book of Proverbs:

“A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” Proverbs 17:22

Here’s what research has shown to be the case about how laughter and joy affects our body.

1. It stimulates vital organs by improving the intake of oxygen.
2. It increases and decreases the heart rate, which “cools down” our stress response and relaxes us
3. It also reduces stress by stimulating circulation and helping muscles relax
4. It improves our immune system by activating neuropeptides that help fight stress
5. It improves our mood and lessens anxiety and depression
6. It improves our brain function by releasing brain derived neurotrophic factor which encourages the growth of new neurons and synapses
7. It improves sleep function –ten minutes of laughter can result in two hours of pain-free sleep
8. It lowers blood pressure, and glucose levels

The evidence is clear, and as Christians we have every reason to laugh and be happy. We have the Good News of eternal salvation. Let’s share it with others!

For more posts about health see:

Heart Health

Improve Your Health, Make a Friend

Choose Spiritual Health

Pulling Weeds

We’ve had lots of rain lately.  Lots and lots of rain.  If it hasn’t been raining the temperature is around 85 – 90 degrees and the humidity is sky high.  It’s been like walking through the bottom of the ocean.

Our battle this summer has been to keep our small yard from looking like a jungle.  Today the sun was shining and it wasn’t 90 degrees out with high humidity.  Good!  A day to go outside and pull weeds.  Some weeds were easy to pull – the ground is still moist from all the rain.  But then there were others that were extremely hard to pull out, you know the ones that snake all over and put down hundreds of roots all over the place.  Some were snaking around our flowers cutting off what small bit of sunshine that they would get.

As I was doing this I thought what a great analogy!! Our lives are like the flowers, trying to grow in a “hostile” environment.  As we grow in our Christian lives, the “weeds” spring up to choke out the sun and the water that we need to thrive.  Regular weeding is needed – pulling the unwanted things out of our life.  Some things come out easily – others are so hard, you never know if you get it all out.  You’ll find you need to do regular weeding to be sure your environment is cleared for growth.

That’s my thought for today – I hope your “gardening” is always easy.

 

God Moments in Ecclesiastes

As I sit here in the wee hours of the morning, the sun just starting to rise above the tree line, I can’t help but to chuckle and stand in awestruck wonder. I know God has a sense of humor. He shows it to me all the time and right now is one of those moments.

I am not a morning person, far from it by any sense of the phrase and yet I sit here @ 5:45 am writing today’s next blog post in the Ecclesiastes study we have been going through. I have just gotten back from a trip to the E.R. with my 7 month pregnant daughter, Kimberly. (If you have been reading our blog, I talked about her a few posts ago) She has had very severe heartburn with this pregnancy, severe anemia, and started swelling recently so when she woke me up @ 3 in the morning in severe pain, I followed the doctors orders and took her in, worried that she might be developing pre-eclampsia because it runs in my family. As we were running out the door, something told me to grab a book off of my bookshelf and bring it with us.

You see, this was not just any book. It was my second copy of Erma Bombeck’s book Forever Erma. I have two copies of this book for a special reason. The first copy I have was given to me by my mother-in-law, Mary. (Who became my mom when I was 17, when my husband and I started dating a year after my own mother had passed away of cancer) When I went into preterm labor with our younger daughter Kirsten, she had brought the book with her to the hospital and read it to me from my bedside to help take the focus off of the pain and direct it in a positive way. I went into preterm labor a total of 9 times during my third trimester, and each time she would bring the book and read it. We would laugh, we would cry, and she would tell me stories of experiences she had with being a mother, just like the journal entries Erma Bombeck wrote down and recorded for the world to read in this book. Inside the back cover are written all the important phone numbers and notes Mom needed just in case, scribbled in her handwriting. I will never part with this book. It means the world to me, I cherish it. So when I came across a copy at Half Price Books one day for $2, I bought it, for such a time as this.

So, in keeping with tradition, I took it along with us to the hospital tonight and read it to my daughter, to help take her mind off of the pain she was experiencing and turn it into something positive. As I sped up to the emergency room, got her into the nurse’s hands, who just so happened to be outside the door bringing a wheelchair in, I quickly parked the car. As I got out, I paused for a moment and the tears started to flow. I stood there, in the silence of night, and prayed to God that my child and my unborn grandchild would be alright. I quickly wiped away my tears and headed in to join her. As we sat in the labor and delivery room, I read to her. We laughed, she shared her worry, we talked about motherhood, and when the nurse came in and heard me reading to her, she couldn’t help but smile. I was reading Erma’s journal entry from May 12, 1974 (which was written 1 month after I was born). It was titled When God Created Mothers. (If you haven’t read this book I highly recommend it) When Kimberly noticed the smile on the nurse’s face she immediately said, “It’s a tradition in our family.” and I explained why.

As we came home, and I helped get her settled, I told her I loved her, and off to bed she went. I felt the Holy Spirit nudging to me to just stay up and write my blog post now. Because I am not a morning person, I hesitated, but obediently came back to sit down at my computer. (along with a cup of coffee!) As I read the verse I had planned to do for today’s blog post, I started to cry and laugh all at the same time. Ecclesiastes 3:4 says this…

A time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to grieve and a time to dance.

Tonight, God showed me that this verse is certainly true. We can even go through it all in a short time frame, even in the span of a few hours, sitting in hospital room.

God loves you and so do I,

Leslie

 

photo courtesy of umcrp.org

 

The Easter Laugh

You may recall that on April 1st, I wrote a post about the resurrection entitled, “Is it a Joke?”  Well I’ve just been reading a book called “Holy Humor” and found out I’m not the first person to have that idea.  A number of early church theologians including Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom wrote that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.  There’s even a name for it: Risus paschalis”  which translates as the Easter laugh.

So who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor.  And what an amusing way He has of getting and keeping my attention!