Laughter: Making the Best of a Bad Situation

By Judy Davis –

Several years ago I was a contestant in a humorous speech contest at Toastmasters. Barbara Johnson’s book, Pack Up Your Gloomies in A Great Big Box, Then Sit on the Lid and Laugh, was instrumental in helping me to compete.

Barbara mentioned in her book, “Humor is to life what shock absorbers are to automobiles.” This reminded me of an incident I had with my new Honda.

My day started off great, but ended with a thud. I decided to get up early since I had a big day planned. After Bible study, prayer and meditation, I drove to the newspaper office to drop off my weekly article, then to the library to research material for a book proposal.

Turning the corner to my house, I hit a curb—I’ve hit it before, only this time I heard a loud noise. I parked in my driveway and looked at the damaged, right rear tire. I walked into the house and my husband was in the den. I thought (only for a few seconds) that I wouldn’t say anything. Then immediately, I said, “Honey, you’re not going to believe what happened!” I proceeded to tell him about the curb getting in my way.

He said, “That was the third time you hit that curb.” The last time I was driving my mother’s car. I told him I was sorry and it would never happen again. He went outside and looked at the bubble in the tire. He then informed me that I would need to buy a new tire, a new cover, and possibly a new rim. Needless to say, I had to use my own money.

My daughter didn’t make the situation any better. When I called her and related the incident, she calmly said, “Mom, you could have bought a brand new outfit!”

I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. From now on, I will be very careful, since I not only blew my tire, but $100 and my whole afternoon.

The day before in our Women’s Prayer Group we had studied about giving thanks in all things. “Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Ephesians 5:20.

I started thanking God that the car was not damaged any worse and no one was injured. And thank goodness I didn’t have to get a tire cover, saving me $20. We can always find something to be thankful for.

Learn to laugh at yourself as laughter is good for the soul. This experience not only taught me a lesson, but I also won a First Place Trophy in the humorous speech contest at Toastmasters International.