Great Love Leads to Great Delight
- Tabitha Deller
- Jan 23
- 3 min read
“...we can understand what it means to delight in our children, simply because God delights in us.”
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1 (NIV)
Did you know that God delights in you, and He wants you to delight in your children, too!
In today's culture, children can be viewed as burdensome and inconvenient, but that’s not what God’s Word says about you (a child of God) and your children (also children of God).
God not only loves us, it is because of His great love for us, that His love has been lavished on us simply because we are His children.
Zephaniah 3:17 says, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
The dictionary definition for the verb delight is “to please someone greatly.”
I love knowing that simply because God loves me, and He desires a relationship with me, I can come to Him, know Him personally, and walk with Him daily. He not only desires a relationship with me, He delights in me, too.
As a mom, when I think about a relationship with my children, the same is true. My love for them compels me to delight in them. That doesn’t mean they never disappoint me. That doesn’t mean they always do everything perfectly (and neither will we). Unlike God’s love for us, our love for our kids, while it is great, will always fall short, because well, we aren’t God.
But even in and in spite of our imperfect love, we can understand what it means to delight in our children, simply because God delights in us. His love is perfect, and His perfect love not only calms our fears (Zeph 3:17), it also enables, equips, and empowers us to love our children and delight in them, too.
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8, NIV)
That is our aim as moms — let the Father’s great love for us cover our sin as we are found in Him, and let our love for our kids be reflective of His love for them.
Oh friend, know that God delights in you. He wants you to delight in your children, too.
Prayer: Father, thank You for not only loving me, but for delighting in me, too. Help me be the mom You want me to be. I pray Your great love for me would change the way I love my kids. I know that I am not perfect and my love for others falls short of Your love for them, but with Your help, I long to love my family well. I long to find joy and peace and hope in learning to delight in my children and find great pleasure in being their mom. Thank You for giving me the ability to do this with Your help. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Written by Tabitha…an imperfect child of God raising imperfect children of God and still being able to delight in them because of Him!