Joking, What Is It Doing?

I was thinking today about joking around. We all do it, we all make fun and have a laugh but I got thinking, what does it actually do? The first part of proverbs 17:22 says "a cheerful heart is good medicine" so having a laugh is fine but proverbs 18:21 says "the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit". The words we say may be fun at the time, but what are they really doing to our spirit? 

This isn't something that I've only just thought about today, but it's something that happened today that made me verbalise it, and then made me realise I wanted to read more about what the bible had to say about it. 

As a single woman, 26 years old, people often try and match me up with others, and a few times this has ended in us joking about it all the time. Often however, these words then trigger something in me and after a while I almost start believing the jokes, I start seeing something that isn't there. Maybe it's the way a woman's mind works, maybe it's just me... I don't know, but I know it's not healthy. So today, when a joke was made, I decided to put a stop to it. I asked that these jokes stopped. When questioned about it, I simply said, 'it may not appear to be doing something now, but we don't know what this is doing in our spirit'. I likened it to making inner vows, which is may not the best thing to compare it to, but it was all I could think of at the time. When we make inner vows we tell ourselves something that we then stick to without realising like, 'I will never allow myself to have a debt like my parents'. Without realising, we have taken control of our finance, and we don't let God in to it. So my thoughts are that with jokes, we are saying something that eventually our Spirit believes and takes on and removes God from those situations. While I'm busy joking about the guy across the road, I may miss the guy God has for me who is standing right in front of me. One joke may seem fine, but after a few... the possibility that it is doing harm increases.

Now of course, there is nothing wrong with making jokes but I think the best thing to do is focus on jokes that are not about particular people, are not rude, and are not immoral. Whenever we go to say something we should ask ourselves... Is this giving someone false hope? Could this get in the way of Gods plans? Will this make someone see something that is not there? And ultimately... Is this building someone up, or pulling them down?

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." (Ephesians 4:29)

Thankful for: Encouragement

This isn't a physical thing to be thankful for, I guess it's a gift God gives people. The gift of encouragement. There are some people in the world who are just natural encouragers. I was encouraged today by another person in our worship team to play guitar next time I was at rehearsal. There was no pushing to do it, it was a suggestion, and an encouragement that I should not be hiding the talent. It's a talent that needs work, but without the encouragement, it could stay hidden.