When God Makes Me Laugh Out Loud

There are times when God makes me serious. There are times when He makes me humble. There are even times when His activity and presence makes me cry. But the times I like best are the times when God makes me laugh out loud. As in: God just showed up in a way that shows He has an amazing sense of humor.

Jenifer and I got to experience one of those times a few weeks ago. I'll tell you what happened, but first, a little background...

Back in late March, Jen had the opportunity to teach at a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group that meets at a church in our area. She had mentored a bunch of these girls a few years back, so several of them had heard her speak before. Jen felt led to speak about a husband's need for respect, so she invited me to tag along and give a man's perspective.There were about 40 young women there.

The talk went great, but we ended up spending the bulk of the 45 minutes talking about how respect and sex are so closely related. She stated (and I reinforced) the truth that a man's need for respect is powerfully intertwined with his sex drive. A wife who can consistently affirm to her husband that he is desirable (and even virile) in the bedroom will usually discover that he will become more loving, more attentive to her needs, and more focused on his life at home. 

In contrast, a wife who neglects the sexual needs of her husband will typically be left with one seriously cranky man.This can manifest itself in many ways, but none of them are what a wife wants in a husband.

Even in sharing this often touchy subject, there was a real sense of openness from the 40 women we talked to that Wednesday morning back in March. We truly felt like God was moving in a powerful way and that many wives had their eyes opened to a truth that they never fully considered before.

Fast forward to mid-May. To the moment that God made me laugh.

At their last meeting of the year, the MOPS leadership team has a tradition of announcing the names of ladies who have gotten pregnant and are expecting later in the year. Apparently the list was much longer than usual, mainly because of the five babies with due dates all at the end of December...exactly nine months after our talk. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Apparently, they are calling these five kids the "Jen and Barrett Babies." Is it wrong for me to expect at least one of them to be named after me? Probably. I'll let that go.

God made me laugh because He showed up in a wonderful, life-altering way, simply because Jenifer and I were available to speak His truth. Some of the basic truths we shared that changed the lives of those five families:

1) Wives must respect their husbands, even during those times when they don't seem very respectable. This is the exact parallel to the calling for husbands to love their wives, even when they aren't very lovable. Ephesians 5:33 demands it.

2) God is into great sex. He invented it and He wants us to enjoy it. That includes (and might even be limited to) the hot, steamy kind. I don't think God wants us to settle for ho-hum intimacy.

3) God loves children and wants us to have them. Kids are a beautiful by-product of a beautiful act. When they are the result, we must celebrate them and look to God for how He will use us to point them to Himself.

It's not rocket science. It's God's way of connecting a husband and a wife and creating a Godly legacy for the next generation. And I'm so glad that he let Jenifer and I be a part of sharing it with those MOPS ladies.

And I can't wait to meet those kids!! God made me laugh when I heard about them. But I guarantee that I will cry tears of joy when I see them.