It has been very hot here in Minnesota this week, I mean very hot, the temps are close to 100 degrees and at the end of the day I’m pretty tired and sweaty. Today I think it all caught up with me and after morning chores and lunch, I crashed and slept for almost two hours. As I came to my senses the word, delight, was sitting right there in my brain and I couldn’t let it go. Then I started to think about the word, delight. What does it really mean? How come when I think about it I smile, both inside my body and on the outside? When I hold that word in my mind I feel my eyes crinkle up and my mouth starts to lift in a smile. It’s hard to be tense when I hold onto the word delight. So here I am, at my computer and writing in my blog because I need to share this word with you all.

I looked up the meaning of delight, just went right to my phone and typed it. Delight-verb please (someone) greatly “an experience guaranteed to delight both young and old”. Noun- great pleasure. “the little girls squealed with delight”.

Delight is a great word, I don’t think we use it enough. Did you know that God delights in us? Yep! It’s right there in the Bible. Every time I come across it in reference to God and me, I get awestruck that God would say that he delights in us. I mean really? He takes great pleasure in me? Wow I can’t remember anyone, anytime in my life saying that they delight in me.

Psalm 149:9 says, “For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.” and then one of my favorites; Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Really? He will rejoice over me with singing? Awesome!

There are some delightful synonyms for delight, such as contentment, hilarity, jollity, rapture, joy, glee, pleasure, and satisfaction. I think we need more delight in this world. We see it all the time, but often we pass it by because we are in a hurry or we are feeling the opposite of delight such as dismay, disgust, pain, or displeasure. In todays world we have way too much un-delight, so maybe what we may need to do is look for the delightful things and hold them in our hearts. Such as; a baby smiling with his whole body, a horse nickering to you right before she takes off at a trot to meet you at the gate, your dog wagging his whole body just because you walked in the door, and a smile from a stranger.

What if we started telling people that they delight us? What would happen? Wouldn’t it feel really good if someone told you that you delighted them? That they delighted in your happiness, or thought the cake you baked them tasted delightful?

My challenge to the world is to try to use the word delight at least once a day, lets see if we can spread happiness, joy, and light into the world. I think that would be a nice experiment, and it can’t hurt anything… right?