Zephaniah 3:17

A friend asked me recently whether being a parent changed my view of God, or my relationship with him. It definitely has done for me.

The Chinese State Circus is in town, and I was thinking of taking Nellie along, except that I think she might be a bit too young to enjoy it properly. (She'd probably love it for about 20 minutes and then be bored.) But I was thinking about it again today, about whether I'm using her as an excuse to go to the circus, because otherwise I would be too old/ cool/ insert some other adjective here to enjoy it, or whether I really only want to go because I want her to enjoy it.

I finally decided that the major reason I want to go is because I'm excited about the possibility of her being excited by it. In other words, I delight in her enjoyment of things/ experiences/ people. And because I'd been thinking about my friend's question, it struck me afresh that God loves it when we have a good time and enjoy life too. He delights in our enjoyment of life. He delights in us. And knowing that changes things. I don't have to feel guilty about taking time to enjoy reading a good book, or about enjoying baking some extremely calorific biscuits (followed by the obligatory scoffing of said biscuits). What freedom!

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."