'Lord of my laughter'

Wednesday was a truly blessed day. As I reflect upon all the events, work, rewards, and blessings I encountered I cannot help but smile. There is nothing quite like jumping in a car with the Lord, driving four hours up the highway to see someone you love. Over the last week I have been fairly emotionally overwhelmed – only not in a frustrating, weighty way. Rather, I have been emotionally overwhelmed in the sense that I desire nothing more than to prance, skip, dance, and sing – all while declaring, “my cup overflows!” from Psalm 23. Surely the goodness of the Lord is worthy of our reverence, our faithfulness, our praise, our time, efforts, energy, motivations, aspirations, dreams, hopes, everything!

As I observed the EXALT youth choir ministering Wednesday I was thankful for the Lord’s goodness and bringing together this fine group of young people to learn more about Him, each other, and His love. My favorite song the choir sang struck deeply at my heart in a place the Lord has been recently investigating. The words to the song go something like this: “You’re the Lord of my days, the King of my nights – Lord of my laughter – Sovereign in sorrow – You’re the Prince of my Praise, Love of my Life, You never leave me, You’re always faithful…”

Let’s just say I noticed a little “dust on the mantle” in this area of my life and I needed that “white glove” reminder that purity of speech is essential. Granted I do not cuss up a storm, nor do I intentionally make cuts at people. In fact, I am a strong advocate against sarcasm and fictitious misleading remarks. However, I am human and quite vulnerable to slipping up in the sarcasm department once in awhile, when others around me practice it regularly. Sometimes I’m even guilty of laughing when others practice sarcasm.

Thankfully I notice it right away and though people always encourage me when I make those remarks saying things like “Good one!” I never find myself proud – rather I find myself backtracking in my mind with some small ounce of despair wondering how in the world my tongue managed to maneuver its way down that path to dispose those words upon some helpless person. Yikes!

This is important because as the choir sang I was reminded that Christ should be the ‘Lord of my laughter and the Prince of my praise’. I am reminded of a worship song that says, “On my lips there’s a shout of praise” and how the book of James speaks about how the tongue both blesses and curses – sometimes even in the same breath – that’s crazy and really motivates me to continually be conscious about what I say. I am not meant so speak by men’s standards, but rather by standards of holiness that honor both God and His creation with my actions, thoughts, and WORDS.

"Speak only that which is useful for building up the body of Christ..."