It's Okay to Laugh

Bad days. We all have them, don’t we? I wish we could mark them on our calendar. I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to see that next Thursday at 10:30 a.m., a bad day would occur? I think I’d like that. A lot. (Well, as much as you can like bad days.)

Because I like to be prepared.

Of course, life doesn’t happen that way. Take the other bad day for instance: My hubby called to say he would be home late. This should have been a clue.

In the next hour, my baby’s high chair would overturn (with her in it) due to an overzealous big brother playing peekaboo. My entire pot of Texas chili, also known as dinner, would be dumped onto the floor and my toddler. A special bowl my Grandmother passed down to me would break, my daughter would fall off her bed backwards, scraping her back against the wall, the animal toothbrush holder I bought to coordinate would shatter and I would ground two out of three of my children. Whew!

When my husband arrived, I high-fived him and went to my place of renewal: Target.

As I shopped and touched everything in the store, alone, without my children, I couldn’t help but think of the scripture that God has brought to mind over and over the past few months to remind me to lighten up, especially on bad days.

Sarah is referring to her unexpected, but desired pregnancy in Genesis 21:6, “"Sarah said, 'God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." I love this story. I love it because it’s talking about a woman who desired to have a child, a woman who becomes a Mom.

I love Sarah’s attitude. First of all, she’s completely human and laughs at God. I don’t exactly encourage this. But I’m glad her doubt and her humanity is recorded in Scripture. It makes me feel a lot better about me.

But God is gracious to her and gives her a child when she is very old. I won’t elaborate, but I think God has a sense of humor too. Can you imagine being nearly 100 years old and preggo? I can just see her with her walker, tubes of Ben-gay while she’s knitting booties. Yes, God definitely loves laughter.

Secondly, Sarah embraces the unexpected; she takes the absurd in stride. She chooses to laugh, to rejoice in her situation. And as we probably all can recall, later in her son’s life, Isaac is faced with certain death at the hand’s of Sarah’s husband. Well. She’s quite the woman in my book. Throughout her life, she makes wise and unwise choices, just like us.

But I love her for her laughter. That’s a hard choice, especially on a bad day.

But the awesome thing is, there’s a new one, every day.

So, laugh a little.

Daily you can find Kristen laughing at her blogspot, "We are THAT Family."