Had one of those “down days” lately? Just feeling blue, unmotivated, not excited about your life?  

I had one of those days a couple of weeks ago. In the midst of my “blaa feelings about everything” I had asked about ten women if they’d meet me in the church parking lot for a quick photo of empty nesters that Barbara and I wanted to use in some speaking.      

We gathered for what I thought would be a brief ten minutes. Not all of the women knew each other. But we quickly fell into connecting as we thought up a funny way to do the picture. One of the girls shared about a hysterical birthday card she’d just received depicting her “old age.” Another told about a funny email she’d gotten. Then my friend Judy began to describe her new bathing suit—the first she’d bought in years to impress her teenage grandkids on vacation. It was one of those two piece ones with a skirt that comes over your head. She proudly put it on, went swimming and then could not get it off over her head! Wet, it was way too tight. Finally she had to call her husband to come pull it off! Now Judy is absolutely hysterical and as she recounted this story complete with motions the rest of us were laughing so hard we had tears running down our faces. 

Her story spawned other funny ones and an hour later we reluctantly left the gathering to get on with our day. As I pulled out of the parking lot I was still giggling. I felt refreshed, renewed. The “blaas” had lifted and I was energized. A time of laughter with girlfriends had worked wonders! It had cast aside my pathetic self focus and restored my perspective. 

Wise old Solomon said “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22). He’s right. We need friends who will make us laugh. Not all of us are funny but we can spur our “funny” friends on and their gifts will refresh others. Ask God to give you friends who will make you laugh. 

When my sons were tiny I began to pray for their future wives if God should chose for them to marry. One of the things I prayed was for God to give them wives who would make them laugh. Humor is so important in marriage. My sons knew about this prayer and thought it quite silly, but when John fell in love with Alysia while living abroad, he sent me a postcard which simply said, 

“Mom, she makes me laugh, what more can I say! Love, John.” 

Today this postcard sits in a frame on my coffee table.