Date:
November 5, 2024Good Humour Tests
Having a good sense of humour is important, but how do we know if our humour is appropriate? Here are three checkpoints for testing “good humour.”
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Humour
Chuck Swindoll asks,
How is your sense of humour? Are the times in which we live beginning to be reflected in your attitude, your face, your outlook? Solomon…says three things will occur when we have lost our sense of humour: a broken spirit, a lack of inner healing, and dried-up bones (Proverbs 15:13, 15; 17:22). What a barren portrait!…Humour is not a sin. It is a God-given escape hatch…a safety valve. Being able to see the lighter side of life is a rare, vital virtue.1
A refreshing sense of humour is never distasteful, ill-timed, or tactless. Instead, it lightens our spirits and energizes our thoughts. It helps us step back and not take this fleeting life quite so seriously.
“Three tests of good humour: Can you laugh at your own mistakes? Can you restrain when it isn't fitting? Can you enjoy it all alone?”2 If you can't yet answer yes to these questions, we invite you to enjoy our resources on humour. You may feel your strained muscles relax as your troubled thoughts are chased away by good old-fashioned laughter.
1. Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch: Becoming God's Masterpiece (Dallas: Word, 1994), 220.
2. Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll's Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 283.
Jake and Stan
Here’s a great fishing story from Chuck Swindoll that helps us understand Peter’s experience in John 21 a little better.
Five Ways to Stay Young
Here are five great ways to stay young: develop your mind, enjoy your humour, use your strength, pursue opportunities, and serve and seek God.
Age is Just a Stage
How do you stay young? Keep developing your mind, maintain your sense of humour, pursue your dreams, and never stop seeking and serving God.
When Things Don't Go Your Way
We tend to get angry when things don’t go the way we want. A good sense of humour can turn irritation into laughter. Next time things don’t go your way refuse to let your circumstances dampen your joy.
Laugh it Off
When things don’t go our way it’s tempting to get angry. A better ways is to laugh it off. When you choose to smile in the midst of chaos you’re choosing to rise above your circumstances.
Old John
Because of God’s grace Christians live a different life, a holy life. Holiness is a lifestyle of integrity and moral excellence.
Ways We React to Death
God’s faithfulness is unconditional, unending, and unswerving. Even in the face of death. He is the eternal I AM, the sovereign Lord of the universe. And you can trust Him with your very life.
A Reasonably Good Marriage
Chuck Swindoll affirms a reasonably good marriage may not sound exciting but it’s both real and achievable. Marriage enhances life because you’re in it together. The world keeps changing but God’s design for marriage hasn’t. It’s the basis of the family and even society.
Things Aren't Always as they Appear
Many who’ve accepted Christ are still enslaved to their former lives—they haven’t allowed Christ to release them from their old habits and destructive lifestyles. But He’s waiting to unlock the chains and grant a life of freedom.
