About two years ago, I started noticing news and research articles and Bible verses that talked about the healing power of laughter and a merry heart. It caught my attention because the atmosphere in our home at that time didn’t have much laughter. We had come through two hard years and our laughter had been silenced.

2015 was a challenging year for our family because there was a continuous onslaught that year of some situations that caused stress and leached our energy.

I went from working part-time to full time because I oversaw the implementation of new software at the office. Every single appliance and vehicle had to be replaced except for our oven – it was bizarre! I trained for and ran a marathon. Brent was struggling with his job. Some friendships became shaky. Jaci was diagnosed with scoliosis, which catapulted us into week-long doctor visits away from home, hours of home therapy and dependence on God for our finances because insurance paid ZERO. We began to wrestle with the possibility of finding a new place for our family to worship together. And our marriage… well, we were struggling because of all the extra stressors. They were causing us to pull apart, rather than pulling together.

We limped through 2015 in pure survival mode and 2016 was a blur of recovering from the previous year. By the end of 2016 we were tired and exhausted.

After reading several scientific research articles on the powerful effect laughter has on one’s body… I decided I was going to give intentional laughing a try. The Bible says a merry heart is like medicine, and I knew my sick heart and home needed some medicine.

I announced to my family that for one month, January 2017, I was going to laugh out loud about something every single day! They thought I was crazy.

So every day I looked for something funny to laugh at. I did a self-assessment at the end of the day to see if I had laughed. If I hadn’t, I went on YouTube and found funny videos until I found myself laughing! I also chose to laugh at things that previously would have made me respond in anger, like spilling something all over my floor. This was a bit harder, and sometimes it was a forced dry “ha ha ha” that turned into actual laughter. My fake laughter sounded so ridiculous, I ended up laughing at myself!

An interesting thing started happening. I began to realize it took more energy to get angry at an inconvenience than it did to laugh about it. I also found the more I laughed, the easier it became to laugh. I was creating new neuropathways in my brain!  I could feel the difference in my body, my mind and my spirit. The end of January came, and I decided to keep laughing because I loved what it was doing to me. I discovered a merry heart was a choice. The easy thing is always to let an inconvenience dictate my feelings, but it often took a conscious decision to laugh.

*What you feed, grows. What you sow, you harvest. *

I kept laughing at stuff, even when the rest of my family didn’t. I believed it had the power to change our home atmosphere! I also knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight. God gave me a picture of a huuuuuuuuge barge and a little speedboat. A speedboat can turn on a dime, but it takes the barge a lot longer. I knew that changing the culture in our home to one of laughter again was going to take some time. I resolved to stay the course.

I was enthusiastic about what I was discovering and didn’t handle everything right between Brent and me. As I chose to see the humor in situations toward things he was concerned about, it frustrated him because he felt I was not understanding the seriousness of the situation. I explained I felt I only had a certain amount of energy and I didn’t want to spend it on anger anymore. It just took too much out of me. So often we were at odds about my newfound love of laughing. Once he was stressing out about a $100 bill he had misplaced and with irritation he said, “I suppose you just want me to laugh about it, don’t you?” I, of course busted out laughing and he joined me, albeit reluctantly. 😊

Fast forward to January 4, 2019. A Facebook memory of a post I shared in January 2017 about my intention to laugh that month popped up. It stopped me in my tracks. I realized that two years later the barge had finally made a 180 degree turn in our home. We’ve been laughing again! Over and over I have seen my husband begin to choose laughter instead of anger. And I say choose because it really is a choice we all can make. Our children have developed incredible wit that makes me laugh every single day.

I was sharing this Facebook memory with some friends and how different our home is today compared to two years ago. One of them spoke a powerful word in response. She said, “Your laughter is creating soundwaves that radiate out of your home.” It was a holy moment for me. I never thought our laughter could possibly affect others!

The results of my now two-year experiment? Laughter is powerful.

Will it change a hard situation you find yourself in? No.

But I know that it heals a sick heart because it healed mine. I know that laughter can take stress out of a body because I’ve experienced it. And I know that laughter can heal a sick home atmosphere because it healed ours.

You can choose to laugh, or you can choose to get angry. Both have repercussions.

Take your daily medicine and choose to laugh today. And tomorrow.

Your heart depends on it.

**A note to those who are surviving incredibly heart-wrenching situations. I am not trying to be flippant and saying, “Just laugh about it!” I realize there are seasons where one finds themselves in of complete survival mode and your heart is breaking and numb. I just want to wrap my arms around you and give you a hug! My prayer is that someday, despite the pain you’re currently experiencing, you will be able to laugh again. All my love to you…