Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday June 2, 2010

I have noticed that regardless of station in life most people desire to leave something of value to the next generation. Rich or poor, famous or unknown, still the longing is deep seated in our soul.

What do you want to leave behind as your legacy to the next and hopefully to generations yet unborn? Staggering thought when you pause to ponder. (Selah).

For years I regularly read "Peanuts" the insightful character created by Charles Schulz. Schulz had to gift of probing deep into our heart and mind, and causing a chuckle during the read. Concerning the idea of leaving something for the next generation Charles Schulz wrote:

"If I were given the opportunity to give a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself."

The subtle and most powerful key to the "Peanuts" characters was the fact that we saw ourselves and were able to laugh our many faults, foibles and failures.

By laughing at myself I learned to endure the laughter at my expense enjoyed by the wife and kids. For the first few years of marriage and children I suffered much at their merciless attacks on me. For instance while I was flying a Baron across country, The Great Blonde and the children joined in having a little fun knowing in their heart, that in my mind I was flying an important mission for the CIA and the plane was really an F15 disguised as a Baron. Hey, you have to do something to break the monotony of hours and hours of mind numbing boredom interspersed with but a few seconds of stark terror.

If more people learned to join the crowd that is laughing at them and see the humor in their own situation, counselors would starve. Two things above all others are the toughest everyday things to endure; being the object of laughter and criticism. When we develop to ability to join the laughter and learn to look for at least a modicum of truth in the criticism and learn from this, we will join a small percent of the human race and march joyously through a more healthy life. The easiest place to find a good laugh is right in your personal mirror.

Solomon has it in Ecclesiastes 3:4 "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;" It is a good exercise to find out why they are laughing at you and join them. This act will produce more belly laughs than a comedy club.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit.

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