"Laugh it Off" - Day by Day - Aug. 18, 2010

Ever get the feeling that life's a little too tight—like an ill-fitting shoe? Commitments are piling up and you're taking things much too seriously? You either can't get to sleep or you wake up at two in the morning and spend the next three hours rehearsing everything you have to do and can't possibly get done? It's enough to make a grown man or woman scream.

So, instead of blaming others or feeling sorry for myself or planning a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, I'm gonna laugh for a while. If you don't feel like laughing with me, close the book or turn the page. Far be it from me to force you to smile. But if you, too, think it seems appropriate to laugh at some of the stuff that drives us nuts, here are a few groaners.

• If you try to please everybody, nobody will like it.

• The chance of the bread falling with the peanut butter and jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.

• When a broken appliance is demonstrated for the repairman, it will work perfectly.

• Not until you get home from the party will you realize you have a string of spinach in your teeth.

• There's a committee somewhere right now planning your future, and you were not invited to the meeting.

• No one's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

There are hundreds more, but that's enough for now. I feel better already, don't you? Truly, laughter is often the best medicine.

Don't sweat the small stuff; in fact, the big stuff isn't worth the sweat either.

Excerpted from Day by Day with Charles Swindoll, Copyright © 2000 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. (Thomas Nelson Publishers). All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.