Thursday, August 14
- Scripture: Job 8:21 – “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”
- Reflection: Even in difficult times, laughter is possible. It’s often called gallows humor. It relieves stress, and prompts perspective in a healthy way. “If you can laugh at it, you can deal with it,” said the late Joan Rivers.
Find playful moments, every day, and cultivate the habit of chuckling and giggling! Humor supports the resilience of the human spirit. It is a spiritual practice.
One bishop shared the following tips for cultivating humor (full article):- Catch yourself in some amusing inconsistency and then laugh at yourself. This is the foundation of a healthy sense of humor.
- Note the inappropriate or funny things people say or do in public, and draw parallels between those silly behaviors and your own. Positive humor goes beyond mere criticism to a recognition of our common plight as less-than-perfect human beings.
- Include in your regular reading diet published collections of wit and humor, humor columnists, comic strips, and stories by writers with a well-developed sense of humor.
- Occasionally do something harmlessly absurd and totally out of character for your spontaneous entertainment.
- Avoid sarcasm, ridicule, and excessive teasing. They hurt rather than heal.
- Spiritual Practice Prompt: Tell a joke. Read a comic strip. Intentionally find a source of laughter, and absorb it. Share it if you can.
Song:
- “Roar” by Katy Perry: https://youtu.be/CevxZvSJLk8?si=T88-sEGaKTUvU8iS
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” ― Andrew Carnegie
August 14 Daily Devotional