Anyway, back to my surprise—our country has a “National Hug Day!” That’s the good news. The bad news is we missed it! It was a couple of weeks ago. Researching it, I learned that since 1986, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has recognized January 21 as National Hug Day. Who knew? So, if my math is correct, I have missed 26 National Hug Days. How many hugs does that translate into? I need to catch up!
I want to share a quotation from “TIME News Feed” from January 21 called “National Hug Day: Yes It Matters.”
Studies have shown that human contact is essential for healthy social, psychological and physical development. Babies who receive regular physical contact gain weight and grow faster than those who are neglected. Researchers trying to discern what promotes happiness have found that physical contact is an integral part of being cheered up, validated, lowering stress levels and just plain old reminding ourselves that we're human and get a lot from interacting with others.This whole thing impresses me so much because it’s one of those ‘God told me twice’ things. (He does that, probably because I miss things the first time). I could spiritualize or rationalize by pointing out the scripture 2 Corinthians 13:1 “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” However, I could be possibly slow of ear to hear.
Anyway, on the way to work this morning, I was listening to a bible teacher who said two things that grabbed me. First, he mentioned the scripture I wrote about yesterday. Coincidence, huh? (“Gibbs doesn’t believe in coincidences”—you’ll either understand that or not). The teacher said a merry heart does good like a medicine and the joy of the Lord is our strength. From there, he described two sadistic experiments conducted some decades ago by dictators.
The first took a group of orphan babies and put them in an environment where their first year was completely void of touching, love, or communication. They planned to compare certain qualities about them to another group of one-year-olds. They could not. Each of the babies in that first group had died.
The second experiment on a bit older group was not quite as harsh, but still austere where encouragement, smiles, or fun of any kind was prohibited. At the end of the experiment, that group was measurably smaller and weaker than the other group.
Needless to say, there were no merry hearts in the austere groups. How does this all fit together? Well, we all would be healthier if we had known about ‘National Hug Day’ in time to participate. It seems to me we have merrier hearts and are far stronger as we are cared about and hugged. I’m so sorry we missed it. :-(
Sadly, I looked up what is special about today from a website listing all the NATIONAL DAYS and found that today is “National Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk” day. How funny is that!
Well, hug or no hug I need to recognize that the God of the universe loves me and that gives me joy, which in turn gives me strength, which makes my heart merry, which does good like a medicine.
I found some great “Hug” quotes:
• A hug is a great gift-one size fits all, and it's easy to exchange.
• A hug is a handshake from the heart.
• A hug is the shortest distance between friends.
• I don't discriminate - I'm an equal-opportunity hugger.
• You can't give a hug without getting a hug.
• You can't put love in a box but can wrap it in a hug.
• Let's go hug wild!
• Hugging has no unpleasant side effects and is all natural. There are no batteries to replace; it's inflation-proof and non-fattening with no monthly payments. It's non-taxable, non-polluting, and is, of course, fully refundable.
Here are Jeremy’s sermons: http://www.growthstudents.com/#/high-school/messages
Click on “Launch Sermon Player”
Go down and click on “Tidying Up Part 3” (If you want to hear about hugs)
Go up and click ►,
turn up your speakers and meet my youngest.
Happy ‘Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk’ Day
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