When is the last time your children’s voices peeled out sheer delight? I remember the last time mine did.

We are in the habit of reading literature and then, if there’s a movie, watching the film related to it. Having not seen Mary Poppins since I was a small child, and having never read the book, this was our most recent endeavor.

We worked our way through the text, children sitting on my lap and alternately playing and coloring on the floor while I read. I’d stop occasionally to see if they were really listening and actually following above their turtle verses alligator battles and construction sites. Their enjoyment of the book was greater than I’d expected.

Then came the film.

I can’t tell you how many times they laughed in sheer delight. Squeals would erupt from smiles bursting on their faces. My delight was in watching them. I did truly enjoy the movie. But, I enjoyed them enjoying it more.

Do You Delight?

I have often found myself doing this- delighting in watching the children enjoy time with their grandparents, watching across the table or room with joy warming my soul as they built a gingerbread house or snuggled in a chair or built with blocks together. Delighting in stories told by others of miraculous ways God had delivered them. Delighting in the culmination of months of teaching small children words to songs, as they performed at our homeschool co-op’s spring program.

Delight like this is not just second-hand. The joy was mine.

And I delight in the little things of the day. I recently soared with joy, having finally figured out and successfully used a website integration that had been troubling me for some time. My soul has risen, warm and full, breathing in the budding trees and flowers of spring and gazing long at babbling streams bustling on down the line, delivering gurgling life to the waking green along its banks.

Yet, I wonder.

I wonder at the pure delight of my children. I wonder how I can keep fostering that.

In them.

And how to foster it in myself.

I can’t remember the last time delight peeled out of my soul as pure and clear as it did out of Jude watching Mary Poppins. His delight delighted this mother’s soul. And it surprised me, as well. I wasn’t expecting it.

I can imagine that our thankful awe, our peels of laughter, our pause to put down our cell phones, push aside the laundry and just smile- is a delight to our Heavenly Father. And, I don’t want my delight to catch Him by surprise.

He calls us to a high calling- of continual delight:

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.                           – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

When life is weary and full of grief, this is hard. When laundry piles endlessly, broken promises break our soul, and dreams seem snuffed like a candle, we sometimes stagger at this high calling. Yet wonder with me, please.

What is one thing you can do today to delight your soul?

A warm bath? A favorite snack or drink? Ten minutes to read a book for fun? Five minutes to sing a song? A walk through the forest? Favorite music from your young adult years while you scrub the dishes?

Maybe you don’t even know. Maybe the ditches and burdens of your life have weighted you down so much you haven’t lifted your head in a while. But wonder with me. Wonder at what brings light to your eyes.  If you have to, wonder back to your childhood. What used to bring you joy? Pick something.

Pick something and make time for it. Today. And with some regularity. Life can be hard. Our Father wants us to pause and notice His work. His amazing work. He enjoys our sheer delight.

In fact, “this is the will of God in Christ Jesus” for us to not just make the time, but to at all times rejoice in Him and be thankful (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

It’s worth it to make it a priority to enjoy the macro and micro of your life with gratitude to the One who delights in you.

Sip Life Slowly and Enjoy It

This blog is written with you in mind. To nudge you a little closer to the One who made you. To challenge you to engage in your life more fully. To inspire you to pursue your priorities more wholly and holy. And to experience sheer delight along the way.

If you were encouraged by this, you might also like:

• The Incredible Empty
• Crying Rocks, Singing Stars
• Carry Yourself Light
• Your Chrysalis Season

Photo edited from photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash