On top of my piano sits a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers in a variety of shapes and colors. This bouquet was carefully gathered for me not by a florist, but by my four older children on a recent overnight at their friends’ country home. Knowing that there were lovely flowers in the area, the kids decided to go walking and pick several for me.
Now, I enjoy the bouquet in my dining room. But what I enjoy most about it isn’t the beauty I can see. It’s the beauty I can’t see.
Those flowers represent love. Pure, sweet love that was strong enough to motivate my children to expend their energy and effort to do something that would bring me pleasure. And as I look at the flowers, I find that I’m motivated in return—to spend my time and energy on searching out things that will bring them pleasure.
Sometimes, those things might be as simple as making their PBJ sandwich (instead of requiring them to make it for themselves) and then cutting it into shapes. Other times, it might mean reading to them, playing a game with them, or seizing a few free moments on a beautiful day to take them to the park.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be something huge in order to delight our kids; it just needs to be something designed to make them happy.
After all, it’s the same way God treats us.
Every day, God pours blessings into our lives. Every day, He does things designed to delight us. He does them on our good days; He sometimes does even more special things on our bad days. He knows our hearts, and He knows how much we long to be delighted. So He showers us with good things, both big and small.
You and I both can think of lots of things that would bring delight to our kids’ hearts. If we spend some time thinking about it, we could probably come up with even more. We don’t have to be especially creative. We can just do the things we know to do and ask God to open our eyes to see other, special things that would make our children happy.
I’m going to have that bouquet of flowers to look at for days. Maybe even a week. And every time I look at it, I will remember not only my children’s love for me, but God’s love for me. He sent me a bouquet of flowers through my children. So I’ll be thankful—to Him and to them. And I’ll spend time this week thinking about ways to delight my children—not just because I love them, but because their heavenly Father wants to give them gifts through me.
Will you do the same?
James 1:17— Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.