For the week of: Monday, March 3rd 2008

"The Cheerful Heart"

My personal Bible study for 2008 is the book of Proverbs. I’m moving at a snail’s pace and it may well end up being my study for the rest of this decade but it is good, good good.

Look at Proverbs 15:15b (I’m not really there yet, I kind of peeked ahead) –The cheerful heart has a continual feast.

You know what feeds my cheerful spirit? Relationships.

I am a relationship girl, no doubt about it. People energize me (honesty would demand that I say that there are times when I want no more feasting on the people in my world but that truly is the exception and not the norm). Give me a weekend like this last one filled with the three grandboys and I’m cheerful to the point of being nauseating to anyone with an ear to hear. I love those boys and if you think that’s just a grandma oozing sap, you should see how their grandpa lights up when they’re around.

It was a weekend blessed with sniffy kisses all over Ryley’s face after a bubble bath (you know, those are the kind of sniffs that you make that sound like a puppy sniffing for a bacon treat), snuggles in bed talking about which Bible story Wyatt would want to be in if He could be in one (David and Goliath), making rainbow pancakes (anybody know a surefire way to remove green food coloring from kitchen grout?), watching Dylan carefully read every birthday card before tearing into his birthday presents, car dancing to Chris Tomlin praise music, Scrabble (I lost to the 8 year old…painful, very painful), Uno (I reigned victorious over the 8 year old), dinosaur puzzles, story books, movies about talking animals…goodness it was wonderful.

And then there are the girl weekends like the one a few weeks ago with 6 of my heart gals to the national Women of Faith Conference in San Antonio, Texas and the midnight laughter, back rubs, clenched hand prayers, side-by-side hand-raising worship, early morning oatmeal and late night pizza. Talk about cheerful hearts!

There’s a 10 page post just waiting to happen on this subject! I could mention the cheerful feast of the relationship of my sons and daughters, the banquet of blessings from co-workers, the filled appetite I have after sweet fellowship with my brothers and sisters in the Body...oh so many.

Belly up to the bar, as they say, and grab some gusto for that heart of yours. There are relationships waiting for you to pursue them – good, holy, pure, relationships. I know – not everyone gets warm fuzzies from daily relationships but Jesus surrounded himself with 12 men for three years so there must be something to the concept. Choose wisely but choose. (And ladies, choose women. Jesus chose all men for his best buds, we best choose all estrogen.) Find the right mix of gals or one special woman of God and see what a feast it can be for your heart.

Here are pictures of just some of the people on my banquet table of cheer!

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