Laughing at Ourselves

Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself and your life. I remember when my kids were little, that sometimes I would notice one (or both) of them working furiously on something terribly important to them. . .like building the largest lego dinosaur in history. It would start out as fun. Lots of energy, excitement, and scattered legos everywhere. We were willing to tolerate the damage to feet and furniture that errant legos can inflict because we wanted to encourage any spark of creativity. At some point however, things would sometimes turn "serious". The room would grow strangely silent, like the calm before a storm. . .a brow would furrow as "problems" appeared. . .a missing or wrong-colored lego. . .a top-heavy and unstable dinosaur. . .a big brother who liked to knock over half-finished dinosaurs. . .whatever. Finally, there would be an explosion of frustration. Great philosophical summaries of the situation would be issued by the kid like, "This is stoodpid!!!" or "Arghhhhhhhhh!!!" or "I hate dinosaurs!!!" It usually struck me as funny. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. . .which is something I learned from experience to suppress. Sometimes I could help. . .other times, they would fly outdoors to console themselves with fellow kid-sufferers before I could regain my composure long enough to offer a solution.

Well folks. . .when I step back and look at myself and my reaction to my problems. . .even the ones that may involve life and death. . .it all looks a little familiar. Maybe that's one reason God made us capable of having and raising children. Maybe the reflection of ourselves we see in our children can help us actually see ourselves with a better perspective. . .a more heavenly one. Maybe it's OK to laugh at ourselves.