Delight!

There is a verse in Psalm, actually Psalm 37:4 that states “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (NIV).  Beautiful isn’t it.  Delight yourself in the ways of God and He will give you what your heart desires most.  Is it really that simple?  Is God really that loving of a Father that all we have to do his delight in His ways, honor Him in all things, and we will get the desires of our sinful hearts?  In short, YES! We have certainly seen this in our house lately.

          At the beginning of the month, my wonderful husband in passing mentioned how much he enjoyed butchering with his Granddaddy when he was younger and wished he could have that experience one more time before his Granddaddy was too old to help anymore.  Not really a prayer, just a passing thought.  Yet, he dismissed this thought because he figured the cost of raising a steer for grain fed beef would be too high.  Low and behold when Granddaddy went to sell some cattle, through a sheer accident (or was it), we were given a grain fed steer for my husband, Granddaddy, and our children to get the pleasure of butchering.  Yes, the meat was a huge blessing.  What was the bigger blessing was God granting the desire of his heart to him.

Granddaddy and Robert working together

Robert teaching Maggie how to butcher.

When taking what was left of the steer to the meat processor, my wonderful husband saw a horse that would be perfect for our children.  She was petite only about 12 hands, could neck rein beautifully, and was bomb proof; the things that we wanted in a good horse for our little ones.  The asking price was much too steep, $1,000.00.  Together we prayed about it and left it to God. He knew how much we desired a good horse for our children.  He knew our hearts.  Guess what, price was lowered and we have a beautiful Paso Fino mare sitting in our pasture.  Not only did we get the mare, but we got a saddle, and 2 barrels of feed.  Her name is Candy.

Candy and her excited new owners!

Are we doing anything extraordinary?  NO!  All we are doing is seeking to honor God with our lives.  We purpose to train our children for Him.  We seek to do what is right daily, no matter what.  Are we always successful?  Certainly not!  I am nothing more than a sinner that is saved by His grace.  I do not deserve any of this.  Yet, here I sit, on this Sunday morning after eating a meal of T-bone steak last night that I did not deserve and watching my children with their new horse that we all did not deserve and the only thing that I can think to do or say is: WOW!  What a God who loves us enough to bless us with unexpected things that we don’t deserve.   

          Delighting in the ways of God is good for us on so many levels.  We learn to think of others first and ourselves last.  We learn to be bold in our faith and actions in a time when Christians are told to hide.  We learn to live and rely fully on God for all things, even things that seem frivolous to many but are important to us.

I am thankful that my husband seeks to honor Christ first in all things.  I am thankful that my husband will take charge and lead his family in the ways of God when the world tells us to do something differently.  I am thankful that Christ gave me this strong man to stand up for me and then stand with me. His faithfulness is having a lasting impact on our family and my children are learning this and seeing the rewards.

 So, this makes me want to ask a lot of questions.  Do you know my King?  Not the vindictive hateful God that most people try to portray, but my King.  Do you know the joy that it is to call him Daddy and run into His arms with dreams that people say are foolish only to get His warm embrace? Do you know how much He desires for you to delight in Him?  Do you know how much He wants a relationship with you, one that starts at a place called Calvary and is forever moving forward with you?  I hope that you do. For God’s rewards are much sweeter than anything you or I can ever imagine.