A Good Laugh

A Good Laugh

A glad heart makes a happy face.

Proverbs 15:13

“Do you two need a tissue?” a voice gently whispered from behind us. We were sitting in a quiet theater watching a somber play when—at the saddest moment—something struck us as being funny. Hysterically funny.

At just that moment, Les had found a withered old banana in his coat pocket. Who knows how long it had been there, but he set this surprising discovery on my knee. Caught off guard by the incongruity of the banana and the scene, I developed one of the worst cases of the giggles I’ve ever had. Les quickly caught the same disease. We tried desperately to stifle our laughter in the hushed theater, but as we bowed our heads to hide our faces, we couldn’t keep our shoulders from shuddering. An older woman behind us, thinking we were moved by what was happening on stage, offered us a tissue for our tears, which made us want to laugh all the more. When Les accepted her kind offer, I really lost it and had to leave the theater.

Just another day in the marriage of Les and Leslie? Not quite, but we do laugh a lot together. As you can tell, the tiniest of things can sometimes set us off—a slight inflection or a knowing glance, for example. We can quote a funny line from a movie or sitcom for weeks. Better still are the unplanned faux pas in front of others that bring embarrassment. We have the same funny bone and can’t keep from using it. No wonder we enjoy our marriage.

Laughter does that. Any good friend will tell you that laughter is the shortest distance between two people—and that’s especially true in marriage. No matter what your personalities are like, if you’re living together, making decisions together, and spending time together, you should naturally have your own inside jokes and meaningful lines. Using them is actually healthy for a number of reasons, one of which is that shared laughter strengthens a bond. Don’t overlook an opportunity to share a laugh with your spouse today. Be intentional and bring home a story from the day or a joke you know will cause the two of you to revel in a moment of shared laughter.

The most thoroughly wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed.

—Nicolas Chamfort