I’m sure you will relate to the happiness booster connected to the letter “y.” This attitude energizer has been around for quite a while…perhaps not in the form of YouTube, but certainly in the form of little video snippets that make us laugh or smile.

Ms. Marquez suggests that when we indulge in watching funny videos, we laugh. Laughter can give you a “rush of feel-good endorphins and reduce stress hormones, helping to relax almost instantly.”[i]

So maybe you haven’t sat and watched YouTube, but you’ve spent a few minutes each week watching a funny video on Facebook. And just to remind you, America’s Funniest Videos has been on the air since 1989! If nothing else, this shows that we love to laugh!

Why? Because it makes us feel good.

Regardless of where you get your funny video habit suppressed (YouTube is good because it begins with the letter “y”), you watch and laugh and you feel better. Perhaps even glad.

So how does this relate to our spiritual life? Well let’s see from Scripture what should make us glad, happy and perhaps even laugh.

• We should be glad because we have refuge in God (Psalm 5:11)
• Singing praise to God should make us glad (Psalm 9:2)
• Being in God’s presence should make us glad (Psalm 21:6)
• Because God sees us in our anguish and affliction, we should be glad (Psalm 31:7)
• We are glad when we are right with God (Psalm 32:11)
• Those who seek God are glad (Psalm 40:16)
• Thinking of the city of God, we are glad (Psalm 46:4)
• Restoration brings gladness (Psalm 53:6)
• We know gladness when we experience God’s satisfying love (Psalm 90:14)
• God’s deeds make us glad (Psalm 92:4)
• As we worship God, we enter into gladness (Psalm 100:2)

Obviously these are verses from the Book of Psalms. But I found one more passage that I’d like to share with you.

Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 (NIV) says this. “When God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”

What occupies your heart? Disappointment? Sadness? Grief? Bitterness? Greed? Something else? I understand this verse as saying that when we are content with what we’ve been given in life, our hearts will be filled with gladness. When we know where all of our possessions come from (God), then we are able to be happy with what we have and then the outcome is a glad heart.

There is a lot in this world that vies for the attention of our heart. But only God is able to make our hearts rejoice and be glad. I pray that you will come to know this gladness. I pray that you will seek the One who is able to give you unimaginable gladness. I pray that your heart is filled with God’s gladness. It’s only in that place where you will find true contentment. Joy. Happiness. Rejoicing. Gladness.

YouTube has nothing compared to what God can offer.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Donna

[i] “More Bliss, Less Stress: A to Z Happiness Boosters to Try Today,” Jennifer Rainey Marquez, Good Housekeeping, Vol. 260, No. 4, page 113-115.