Good Ol’ Family Fun
Katie P. Ferrell

If our ancestors came to visit us, they would be amazed at the fast-paced world that we live in.  The concept of a microwave would be difficult for them to understand.  The internet would completely blow their mind away, and all the focus on fast food would knock them dead…again.  After visiting their 21st century posterity for awhile, these ancestors would probably want to offer us some advice before they left.  What advice would they give?
Perhaps they would tell us to use our resources more wisely, or they might explain to us the advantage of working for your supper.  I believe that the biggest point they would emphasize would be to simply slow down.  They would encourage us to take time to be with our families, because when it’s all said and done, family is what matters most.  
But, we might ask, how do we let go of the world?   Sometimes it can get pretty tough; and we all have terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, even in Australia1.   “One simple word,” they would say, “humor.”   Maybe they would tell us the story of how they walked to school, or worked in six feet of snow, barefoot, uphill…both ways.  After some jolly good times of fun and laughter they would leave us smiling with their memories.
 According to author Brad Wilcox humor can improve our perspective, strengthen our relationships, and also help us cope with what goes on around us.  An uneasy situation suddenly becomes more comfortable if laughter is there.  Friendships are formed through the sharing of (ability to) laugh and have fun2.
In Proverbs 17:22 it says “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”  Here are a few ways that we, as a family, can have some fun.

1. Share jokes daily around the dinner table.
2. Remember who you are and don’t let it get you down.
3. Make a humor book, where you record funny moments in your family.
4. Encourage your children to make tents in the living room, or have sock fights.
5. Never be afraid to laugh at yourself.

Children laugh four hundred times a day while adults only laugh fifteen3, so we had better get cracking…up. 

1 Viorst, J. (1972), Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, New York City: Aladdin Paperbacks.
2 Wilcox, B. (2000, March). If we can laugh at it, we can live with it. Ensign, 27
3 R. Robinson, D. N. Khansari, A. J. Murgo, and R. E. Faith (1990), How laughter affects your health, Effects of stress on the immune system, Immunology Today, 11(5), 170-175.