Thoughts for Life: My Mother Always Said . . .

Hope Finchbaugh: My Mother Always Said . . .

“Always keep a sense of humor (I Betty 2:3).”

Hope: Mom, I don’t know anyone who gets people laughing more than you.

Mom: I used to say that you need a good sense of humor in marriage. Your dad had all the sense and I had all the humor.

Hope: Smiling here. = ) I do remember that. Dad was always more serious and you were always the joker. Our readers need to know that Dad is in heaven now and you moved into an apartment building for independent senior living. Just last year you dressed up like Minnie Pearl and performed using your own script. You had the audience in stitches! But I remember you liked a good laugh at home, too. Why is humor in the home so important?

Mom: A sense of humor saw me through a lot of tough spots. And there were times your dad really appreciated it. I remember during Hurricane Agnes, we lived in the valley at Teen Haven Camp. The water came gushing down into our house. It was actually quite distressful. We had to get all the carpet up. I opened the front door and the back door and swept the water through to the back door. I was swinging a broom, directing water, and laughing all the way through the living room, around the corner, and out the back door.

Your dad said if I was laughing, everything was right with the world. If I started crying, he didn’t know what to do.

Hope: I didn’t even know that story! Please, tell me about another time when a sense of humor got you through a tough spot.

Mom: The campers at Teen Haven had sponsors who paid their way into camp. Whenever the campers came to camp, I took all the money they brought us and put it in one envelope. Our house was easy for these city kids to break into, so I put the envelope on the desk and wrote: The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the good and the evil. Do not steal.

Hope: I guess that kept you in a peaceful frame of mind and helped you not to worry about the money, right?

Mom: Right.

Hope: I remember one time I was in my bedroom and I heard you and Dad squealing and laughing. Your bedroom door was open a crack. I looked in and you were standing on the bed pretending to do karate saying, “Hi-YAH!” Dad said, “Betty, you Silly!” Then you two threw ice cubes back and forth!

Mom: I barely remember that.

Hope: I never felt so proud of my parents. I loved that as a kid.

Mom: Laughter eases the tension. One time when we lived in the trailer at Arrowhead Awana Camp in near Binghamton, New York. If you remember, the bathroom door always blocked the back room in the trailer.

Hope: I remember that the trailer was so small that the hallway went between our bunk beds and dresser.

Mom: Exactly. So I had to get in the back room but your dad was taking a shower and blocking the door to the back room. I turned the water on in the kitchen sink so he’d run out of hot water.

He caught on. The next Sunday morning he was ready for church.

He said, “Betty come here quick!” I ran back to see what was wrong and he poured a cup of cold water over my head! It was sweet revenge, but I had to get changed all over again for church.

Hope: You two did have some fun, didn’t you? Thanks for sharing, Mom.

My Mother Always Said . . .

by Lift the Cross of Jesus!

Father, let laughter come from my mouth. May I be quicker to see the humor in things that seem so serious, and be able to let my emotions become relaxed, to where I can see the brighter side to life.
I want to see things from Your point of view, and to understand that things aren't "as bad" as I think.
Help me remember times that I found humor invigorating, and guide me to let a laugh come forth more often.
I ask this in Jesus' name, and for His glory. Amen.

Today’s Bible verse: Col. 4:6 "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."

Col. 4:6 (Message Bible): "Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out."

Today’s quote: Paul E. Billheimer - "Today, we need a true evaluation, a proper analysis of God's Word. According to author Erich Sauer in The King of the Earth, man's spiritual nature expresses itself mainly in his power of speech. 'Speech is the direct self-revelation of the inward man or of the personality. Thought is, as it were, the inward speech of the spirit and the spoken or written word forms a body for the thought. Speech is the instrument for the manifestation of the spirit.' Your thought is you! (see Proverbs 23:7" Taken from p.109 of Destined for the Throne)

Some thoughts today: We need to own our failures and be renewed through confessing them to someone in confidence. Someone we trust.

~ When you realize you haven't arrived, may you see your need of Jesus, as Apostle Paul did in 1 Cor. 15:9. May we have a present-tense of this need, and be determined to spend quality time with Him each day.

~ The love of many will grow cold through all that's offered today, and take their eyes and hearts off of the Savior. Let's remain faithful to Him 'till He comes!

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26th- Saturday's post: How to Have Peace
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