He delights in YOU! He creates calm in you with His love. He sings and dances over YOU! YOU are His beloved!!  Pause…go back and read that again, can you take that in? He delights in YOU!….say it out loud…He delights in me, He calms my heart with His love, He dances with me and sings over me, I am His beloved….whew that is is powerful and wonderful to take in. My heart is overwhelmed when I think of His great love for me!

This, my friend, is the essence of joy, the fragrance of being truly alive. When we can take in His sheer delight in us we are never more truly alive. When we are aware of that fact deeply at the depth of our hears and at a subconscious level in our minds our lives are transformed, renewed, refreshed and we live fully alive. 

When I ask people all over the world what they want most in life for themselves or their children in two words the answer is always the same “happiness” “joy” “meaning” “peace”. We seek so many other things but what we truly desire is peace, joy, a genuine sense of well-being.  To be fully alive and live into our true selves we must have joy and we must be able to return to this joy again and again and again throughout our days.  To be able to turn your heart back to His love, back to peace, back to joy quickly after an upsetting or unpleasant emotion is the hallmark of maturity and the basic foundation for living a full and meaningful life. 

There are lots ways to teach yourself to return to joy and have a peaceful heart. One of the many ways I return to joy is to meditate and memorize scripture.  I take a scripture and write it on a sticky notes or a 3×5 card and put it in my pocket every time I see a note or put my hand in my pocket I am reminded of the scripture and God’s truth and I read it out loud (or silently if I am not alone) and in a few moments His perspective changes my mind and my heart is renewed.  This is a simple act of acknowledging that I am His, He loves me, I matter and it puts my universe back into eternal perspective from which I can see that most things don’t really matter which can put my heart at rest.