A preacher, who was "humor impaired," attended a conference to help encourage and better equip pastors²（牧师） for their ministry³.

Among the speakers were many well known and dynamic speakers（电动扬声器） . One such boldly approached the pulpit（讲道台） and, gathering⁴ the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn't my wife!"

The crowd was shocked!

He followed up by saying, "And that woman was my mother!" - The crowd burst into laughter and delivered the rest of his talk, which went over quite well.

The next week, our pastor¹ decided⁵ he'd give this humor thing a try, and use that joke in his sermon（布道，训诫） . As he approached the pulpit that Sunday, he tried to rehearse（排练） the joke in his head. It suddenly seemed a bit foggy to him.

Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that was not my wife!"

The congregation（集会，圣会） inhaled⁶ in surprise. After standing⁷ there for almost 10 seconds in the stunned⁸（受惊的） silence, trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted⁹ out, "...and I can't remember who she was!"