“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” That’s Proverbs 17:22 and such an important choice to make with our children. We just cannot be serious all the time, we must learn to goof around with our kids more often than we think we should. Life can be way too heavy at times, especially recently. If we do not encourage laughter in our children, if we do not model light-heartedness, sadly, depression can become a reality for our youth. The stress of school, their peers, trying to find their own identity in God’s Kingdom…ok, let’s be honest here, too many of our children are being indoctrinated by education, media & social media, music, movies and so on and so on, so much that too many kids growing up in Christian homes do not seek their identity in Christ, but attempt to gain false identity from this world. Wow, this got really serious, really fast! This is one of the reasons why we have to make laughter a big part of raising our children. No child wants to follow a God Who is stern and grim, but they will automatically feel united to one who is lighthearted.
The truth is God has a great sense of humor. There are so many times that I have been in the midst of what I thought was a very serious prayer, when I sensed the Holy Spirit telling me to lighten up! Then some really funny situation will pop into my mind and I have to laugh! As the Bible teaches, there is a time for every season, so there is a time to be serious, but there is also a time to laugh! Laughter really IS good medicine. When our relationships with our kids seem to be sickening, try laughter…and we must definitely teach our children when it is right to be serious, and when it is good to laugh too.
<>< Peace, Diane
