Delighting in your Children

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalms 37:4

Delight is defined as giving or having a high degree of pleasure, enjoyment or satisfaction. We are God’s delight and He wants us to delight in Him.

 

Children are a gift from the Lord. We know this to be true, although while we are raising them we wonder sometimes. The day to day rigors of parenting often times impair our vision and impede our ability to “delight in our children”. When my daughters were born, it was love at first sight. The ability to unconditionally love a newborn baby is second nature to a new mom and dad. But when that cute little baby begins to be demanding and demonstrates some self-centeredness as an independent toddler, it is often hard to love without expectations. Remembering to love unconditionally becomes a commitment and a discipline of the heart for many parents, during those toddler years. I used to have a supply of stickers that said “Caught doing something GOOD” on them. During those challenging toddler seasons of discouragement for me, when the kids seemed to whine, fuss or have hard days, I used to give out those stickers for almost any “GOOD BEHAVIOR” that I could identify. This brought delight to their little faces and really helped change the atmosphere and broke the negative cycle of behavior most of the time.

 

To remember to DELIGHT in our children regardless of their behavior is a skill that develops as you work together as parents. A good sense of humor helps. Another thing to consider is keeping your expectations for each child achievable for that particular child in their particular developmental stage. Be a student of your children. Watch them and actively listen to them. Each child has a unique temperament, a unique personality, and natural bent that influences how they respond to life. Find ways to celebrate your child. Acknowledge them for behaviors that enhance their unique character traits. As you observe, celebrate and acknowledge your children you will begin to develop habits of delighting in your children. (Pictures below from 1988 and 1989)

 

This adventure of DELIGHTING in your children is as much a lesson in adult character development and consistent loving personal behavior as it is in child training. Parenting is a day to day adventure that never ends. The journey of parenting teaches us about God and His unconditional love and desire to help us develop into great people of integrity and strong moral character. Delighting in our children reflects the heart of God for us as His children. It is God who will then actually give us many of the desires of our heart. There are no guarantees, but a life of contentment is more available when we make a commitment to DELIGHT in our children.

Delighting in my grandchildren is a benefit of all the hard work and dedication that went into delighting in my daughters.

 Are you willing to do the work necessary to develop consistency in “delighting in your children”?