Thoughts from chapter 9 of the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren...

"The righteous are glad
and rejoice in His presence;
They are happy and shout for joy."
-Psalms 68:3

I wept through most of this chapter.
Strange when you read the above verse but even so, it's true.

God's word is such a mirror to the soul, it reveals our hearts, our thinking, our immediate moment in loving but painful clarity.

I found myself touched by an acute sense of God's overwhelming goodness and abundant blessings while reading this chapter. When you stop to think about the countless small and large things that we have to enjoy that are free and produce simply pleasure...it's amazing.

Pleasure for pleasures sake is a goodness from God that rocks the overly religious mind. We can get so spiritually constipated that we can't enjoy much of anything without complaining or whining about something.

Such a life doesn't bring pleasure to the Lord.

"God...generously gives us everything for our enjoyment." -1 Timothy 6:17

You can't get much better than that!

The part of the chapter where pastor Rick explains that:
"My children didn't have to do anything for me to enjoy them..." really struck my heart as well. It is SO TRUE.

So much of the enjoyment of having children is watching them enjoy all the little things in life. Watching them explore and experience all of creation's little treasures is an intoxicating pleasure.

Childhood is packed full of the simple enjoyment of finding pleasure in them.
Life then shifts more and more towards what they do and that is when the trouble starts.
In fact that is when the enjoyment begins to be something that we have to remind ourselves to keep in mind.

We can get so focused on them doing what we want
that we lose the pleasure of accepting them
for who they are.

As they grow into individuals we have to learn to let go and let them become.
That is an art.

Often I find myself having to stop and take a huge breath and remind myself of what is most important right now, and it is usually a call to simply love them for who they are right now.

The farther away from that I get, the less "happy and glad" I seem to become.

God, You are good...and I really mean that God.