I Was Just Joking!

I don't know what it is like at your home, but here in our home we have many who think they are funny. I have nothing against funny...one of our daughters came in by us last night and read us a few jokes she had found: "Why don't you tell secrets on a farm? Because the corn has ears, the potato has eyes and the beans talk." Sorry, it made me chuckle. However, the type of funny I don't like is when we are funny because we made fun of someone else. "I was just joking," these are words I don't like to hear. 

To me, "I was just joking," is a clear sign that someone is being made fun of. It means that one sibling in our home is deciding to have fun at the expense of another sibling. These are words I have tried to eliminate from our home...not only the words, but the attitude that goes with them.

We have not been 100% successful with this goal. It is proving to be quite difficult because we have others in our lives who feel that joking at others expense is acceptable. There are even numerous TV shows designed just to make jokes at others expense. We do not watch these shows, but much of society does.

I was beginning to think that maybe I was just weird and that I should just relax and go with the flow. Then I read this verse from Proverbs 26:19...

 Like a madman shooting

    firebrands or deadly arrows

¹⁹ 

is a man who deceives his neighbor

    and says, “I was only joking!”

I must have read that verse several times over the years, but I never noticed the wording before. So, maybe I am not so crazy....maybe life is precious and we should treat others like they are precious....maybe I won't give up trying to remove, "I was just joking," from our home....and maybe this will be the next verse that we memorize as a family.