Chemicals called endorphins are released in the brain when we have a good cackle, a real belly laugh. Merriam-Webster defines endorphins as: any of a group of endogenous peptides (such as enkephalin) found especially in the brain that bind chiefly to opiate receptors and produce some pharmacological effects (such as pain relief) like those of opiates; specifically: beta-endorphin

Arnold Glasow, the author of Glasow’s Gloombusters, said, “Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.”

How remarkable that our Creator God designed our bodies to produce such a quick jolt to our emotional state in aiding our health! A few thousand years ago, the wisest man who ever lived wrote “A cheerful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength” (Proverbs 17:22, NLT). The Bible Knowledge Commentary clarifies, “a cheerful heart is translated ‘a happy heart.’”

Henry Ward Beecher said, “Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.”

And Abraham Lincoln acknowledged, “With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”

Living in a sin-sick world, we have a great need for some real “laugh till you cry” moments. As a ministry wife, laughter was hard to come by at times. I remember one such season in which I didn’t realize how bad off it had been until some out-of-town friends came for a visit and we began to laugh. I almost got high!😉

One of the greatest gifts you can give the world is to make it laugh!

A good time to laugh is any time you can. ~Linda Ellerbee

A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~Mary H. Waldrip

There’s “a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4a, NASB). Instead of viewing this month as “a time to weep,” my plan is to laugh all through September so maybe I won’t even notice what I’m missing! 😉

Have you laughed until you cried, lately?