Laughter is Good for the Soul

"Let's laugh." Jada often says that to me when sitting on my lap. Then, she'll look at me with a sparkle in her eye and just giggle til she can hardly breathe. I get so tickled at her that I join in. It's contagious! Her ability to laugh at nothing at all has been such a gift to me. She obviously likes the feeling that comes with laughter and when she laughs, I do, too and my stress is lifted for a while.
I have laughed a lot the past few days. Mostly at the antics of my children. Yesterday, Eli got in trouble- major trouble with daddy. After sulking in his room for an hour, he came out with two bags full of necessary supplies. I asked him if he was running away and he told me that he had thought about it, but since Christmas was just a few days away, he was just going to camp in the front yard. I told him that sounded like a great idea- even though it was only 16 degrees outside! :) He lasted an hour. The doorbell rang and Eli asked if he could come inside. He said, "I just can't hack it any longer."
Tonight, we made Christmas cookies. The boys were attempting to make a pregnant gingerbread woman. They used a large gingerbread man cookie cutter to make the mother and then used a miniature gingerbread cookie cutter to make an imprint of "ginger baby". Then, of course, they had to make the whole family! Including grandma and grandpa, who's hands and feet kept falling off because they were so frail! They were having such a good time and got me to laughing so hard that I dropped the unbaked, handless, footless grandma. She ended up in the trash.
My heart is light this evening. I'm tired from the holiday busyness and have much-MUCH- to do before Christmas morning, but the joy of the season has hit me full force. The peace that I know from my Savior has reigned over me during this last year. We have been faced with a lot of difficulty this year- alot of transition, uncertainty and the biggest, of course, Jada's diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. My peace, joy and laughter come from knowing that my life is in the hands of Someone who sees the big picture and knows what I don't. I could easily- so easily- allow fear to control me- in fact, it is indeed my greatest fleshly struggle. Many days- the fear wins. Many more days, though, I am able to lean into the strength of my Savior and have unspeakable joy.
Merry Christmas my dear friends!