"I let you make me happy"

Last week and the week before last the third years (9th graders) had a writing assignment. They don't often write in English, so it was a pretty simple assignment of about 5 sentences about volunteering. We had been studying the grammar point of "a makes b C" (ex: Reading books makes me happy) so that had to include that in their writing somewhere. Not so hard.

There were of course many amusing mistakes and pieces (one guy thought volunteering meant giving money to an octopus so he could buy a soy bean...) but the one that really stuck out to me was when one girl wrote "I let you make me happy." I have no idea how she even came up with that, but it was really funny.

But today I was thinking a bit about life lately. I struggle a lot with negative feelings and the whole concept of love and being loved. I quite enjoy complaining (as all my facebook friends can attest to.) This is of course not very Biblical. (is very thankful God doesn't keep track of negative points right about now...) I had a good conversation with a friend about this tonight.

I am supposed to be in bed right now, but I was still thinking about all these things, like "How do I get better at loving God?" "How do I learn how to love other people?" "How do I accept God's love?" and all of a sudden that phrase popped back into my head. "I let you make me happy."

Wow. Wait, let's think about this again.

"I let you make me happy."

That's the answer isn't it? This works both ways even. This is God speaking to me. "I let you make Me happy." Of course the things I do aren't perfect, but that's OK, God still allows me to make Him Happy. He loves me. He lets me make Him happy. That's grace. Amazing. Humbling. Comforting.

Then it dawns on me. This is also my response to Him. "I let You make me happy." It's so easy for me to get caught up in guilt, to get bogged down by daily annoyances. But freedom is right there. All I have to do is let Him make me happy. Wow. Life isn't perfect, but God's love for me is. He doesn't want me to be miserable. He can make me happy in any circumstances. All I have to do is let Him.

"I let you make me happy."

For some reason, this is just really profound for me tonight. I hope I can manage to put it into practice in my life. I want this to be my reality.

"I let you make me happy."
Amen.