“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.” Zeph. 3:17
As a parent, there are times when I get so frustrated with my children, but there are also times when I am so proud of them. My oldest son’s name is Judah, and he is five years old. At five years old, he is learning so much every day. Certain things I try to teach him and other things he just learns on his own.
For the last couple of years, I have been trying to teach him to pump himself on the swing, but he has struggled to figure it out for some time. But finally, just the other day, he figured it out. As I was standing outside watching him and his brother on the home swing set, he finally got into a rhythm of pumping his legs in and out, in and out. When I saw him finally master this skill, my eyes started to tear up. I knew had hard and how long he had worked to figure this out, and finally he was figuring it out! This mama heart could not have been prouder. I was crying happy tears and grinning from ear to ear. It may seem silly that I took such pride in such a small thing, but since I know Judah so personally, I knew the struggle and how long it had taken him, taken us, to get to this point.
Sometimes I am proud of my children for small things that they do; other times I am proud of them for larger accomplishments. For example, my daughter Ava is two years old, and due to a genetic condition, she did not learn to walk until she was 23 months old. After months of physical therapy, countless prayers, so much time and struggle (on her part and mine), I finally got to see her walk at 23 months old, and once again, my mama heart couldn’t have been prouder. As she was strutting around, proud of herself, I was again crying happy tears and my heart was bursting for joy. Finally my little girl had learned to walk!
As a parent, my heart is so closely tied to my children’s hearts, that I feel their pain, I feel their struggle, and I also feel their fulfillment and their joy in their accomplishments. Similarly, as sons and daughters of God, God’s heart is so closely intertwined to our hearts. When we struggle, He feels that struggle. And when we rejoice, He rejoices with us.
Recently, I was at a mental health conference, and the neuroscientist who was speaking cited statistics that talked about how the human brain is much more focused on negative thoughts and events than on positive ones. As a result, in order to combat depression, research scientists suggest writing in gratitude journals for 6-8 weeks before our brains re-wire to focus more on positive than on negative things. So if the human brain is so focused on negativity, then how does that translate to daily life happenings? Perhaps that mean that we focus on the struggles of the day more than the joys/accomplishments of that day. For example, maybe we spend a lot more time dreading the tasks of the day, rather than rejoicing at what we accomplished at the end of each day. Or maybe that means we spend more time focusing on what we did wrong that day versus focusing on what we did right that day.
So then I got to thinking, if humans are so focused on negativity, what is God focused on? As we go throughout our day, is God standing there focusing on our weaknesses, on our struggles? Or is He focused on our strengths and accomplishments? As I my starting to understand Jesus and grace more, my instinct is that God spends more time focused on our strengths and accomplishments than on our weaknesses and struggles. In Zephaniah 3:17, it says “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.”
Just as a parent rejoices in every single step of progress their child makes, or every new skill that they master, God is rejoicing in us all day long. As we do the dishes or the laundry, God delights in us. He doesn’t say, “Wow, you left a few dishes in the sink,” or “You did a couple loads of laundry, but you could’ve done a lot more.” In other words, MY negative thoughts are not GOD’S thoughts about me. Therefore, I’ve got to stop projecting my human negativity onto Him.
As we wake up in the morning and change diapers and nurture fussy children, God delights in us. As we stay calm as we discipline a child, God delights in us. As we resist a temptation to gossip or complain, God delights in us. As we choose to help someone in need, God delights in us. It could be as simple as the meals we eat, the conversations we have, or even just the time that we spend in nature or with Him. The point is that God delights in the very essence of who we are in Him, and He delights in every step that we take closer to Him, every time that we are faithful to what He has called us to do, in big and small ways. So today may you quiet your own negativity and hear His positivity ring through and through. He loves you and He delights in you.