Proverbs 17:22
A joyful heart does you good like medicine: but a broken spirit dries up your strength.
This particular verse reminds me of a song in the beloved Disney movie, “Mary Poppins”. As many of you know she somehow miraculously appears for an interview to be the new nanny of these two darling children. One evening they were feeling somewhat bad from being outside and dancing in the rain. Mary Poppins tells the children that they had to take their medicine. However, to their surprise the medicine was very sweet and delicious! Then they began to sing a song saying, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
How profoundly true this is! There is no greater elixir for helping reduce the sometimes distasteful events of daily life other than joy, laughter, and happiness. We all know that when we are happy, we feel better; we feel stronger. Happiness causes us to engage life with greater enthusiasm and energy. Listen to this quote by a leading scientist in the field. “Research has shown conclusive evidence of the health benefits that derive from laughter ranging from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one’s threshold for pain. Humor also has several important stress relieving benefits.” Bennett MP, Lengacher C. It is interesting to me that they include with these benefits of laughter a strengthened immune system. I say interesting because the word strength in the preceding proverb written almost 3000 years ago is a Hebrew word (Gerem) that can also be translated as bones and it is in the marrow of the bones where the building blocks of our immune system are originally manufactured.
With this knowledge it is important to come to the realization that if we are to live strong and long lives, we must make sure and do all that we can to live happy. Happiness cannot be found in money, popularity, or material goods, because there is no end to the want of these things. Happiness must be in the now. We can’t wait for an opportunity for it to come, but we must daily apply it; just as we would any other medicine. We must make a decision when we get up in the morning to not let anything steal our happiness, our health, our strength, and thus our life. If you aren’t happy right now, you need to find that one thing to laugh at, to smile at, and enjoy; even if that thing is simply yourself! Take time to enjoy life; especially your own!
Pastor LaVaughn
