If I could hop into the Tardis with The Doctor and go back twenty years to give myself one piece of parenting advice, it would be this: Delight in your kids. At the time, this didn’t even register for me as one of the important items on my parenting to do list. My list was filed with the serious stuff:
Train up your child, teach him right from wrong,discipline your son, and all that jazz…
Things that are good, yes, but ineffective and even…dangerous when separated from delight.
I don’t think I understood how essential delight was to my parenting because I had not yet discovered a fundamental truth-
God delights in me.
No, I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see it because I had a messed up view of God. To me, He was all train her up, teach her right from wrong, and discipline her. All true, yes…
But such a scary God apart from delight.
I had God all wrong, and therefore, my parenting was all wrong too. I have heard that all firstborn kids deserve a therapy fund. How true…
I am so thankful God redeemed my image of Him to include delight. As He did, I discovered something astonishing: His delight in me did not make me lazy in my training, choosing between right and wrong, or even my bearing up under discipline.
It fueled it. I wanted to be holy because the One Who Delighted in Me was holy.
God’s delight in me changed me. It taught me how to be a better mom, one who delights in my kids, and I have great hope that it is changing them too.
Do you know God delights in you?
Listen…
“For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.” Psalm 149:4
God loves you. Rest in His delight today. You just might find yourself passing it on.
