Finding joy in the simple things

Finding joy in the simple things in life can be great fun. Having a toddler around has taught me a new appreciation for enjoying the moment and simply enjoying playing and being silly together.

When we become adults, we lose so much in the way of the ability to marvel at the world around us and simply be thankful for what we have. We forget how to find beauty and awe in our surroundings.

The other day, we went for a family trip out, and while waiting for the bus, my husband and daughter went and looked at a tree. She was so amazed at how big it was, and how the bark was so many different colours. She was really interested that it had no leaves on. To me, if I hadn't had her there, I would have just looked at it and thought, 'That's a tree'. My reaction is not unusual, but thinking more about her reaction made me think about how wonderful the natural world is. I am sure that God loves it when we look at his creation and think 'wow!'

Explaining to my daughter what frost is and why the grass was all white and cold this morning was fun too. She had to bend down and touch it to understand what I was telling her. Again, she was really excited by it and was keen to explore what it was. I think that God wants us to be like that with us, for us to hear of his goodness and be excited by it and want to explore it and understand it more. This week I am thinking of this a lot more than usual as our church is having a 'Prayer Week', with ideas to help us to pray more and spend more time listening to what God wants to say to us. I think that he is calling all of us to be a lot simpler in our relationship with him, to trust in him and let him walk with us and lead us where he wants us to go.

God also wants us to have joy in our hearts. Toddlers are so good at this. My daughter and I have had so many moments recently where we have had fun doing simple silly things, like dancing round our lounge to our favourite music (either classical radio, or blues seem to be the favourites at the moment!). I am so grateful that nobody ever sees this - although I would love to be as uninhibited as my toddler, I know that I would be incredibly embarrassed if I knew anyone was actually watching! We have also had a number of other crazy games like shuffling up and down our hallway on our bottoms (this one would have been even more embarrassing for others to see than my dancing!). So many different ways to simply enjoy being together and playing. But however we may feel about others seeing our embarrassing moments, whatever they may be, God wants to share in those things with us. Doing those silly things with my daughter has been such tremendous fun, and seeing her laughing has been the best part. God wants us to be as uninhibited with him as a toddler is with their parent when they are playing together, and to share our joy with him.

No matter what is going on in our lives, there are always small things to be grateful for, Even in the very worst of times, when I was having a terrible time with my ex, and a lot of family stuff was happening at the same time, it was possible to have some small thing to appreciate. It takes the determination to find something good in everything. I haven't always been good at it, and there have been times when it seemed too much to even try. But whether it's a beautiful sunny day, your favourite food, a song you enjoy, or an unexpected surprise, once you start looking for good things to appreciate, there are so many things you can be grateful for. The aftermath of the abuse was the most difficult time I had been through apart from the abuse itself, but during that time I realised what a loving family I had, and how many good friends I had too. In the darkest of times I was blessed by those around me.

God wants us to approach him as little children. I read somewhere that he wants us to be 'childlike' and not 'childish'. He wants us to be simple in our relationship with him, to be open and honest and let him see the innermost part of our being, like a toddler is with his or her parents. He loves us and wants us to know him and simply enjoy being with him, like my toddler enjoys playing with me. That doesn't necessarily mean he wants us to publicly embarrass ourselves in public by shuffling on our bottoms or doing bad dancing though! That is just between me and my lovely toddler....