{"id":1968,"date":"2013-12-08T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2013-12-08T15:37:57","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T21:37:57","slug":"simple-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1968","title":{"rendered":"Simple Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rejoice-in-Simple-Pleasures\"<\/a>Our world offers a variety of options that were not available a few years ago.<\/p>\n

A seemingly easy shopping list becomes complicated by the myriad of options available for each product, not to mention different brands. Orange juice alone comes pasteurized, fresh squeezed or from concentrate, frozen or not frozen, with a little, lot or no pulp, with or without fiber, organic or non organic, with or without calcium, and so on. A husband trying to pick up a few items at the store for his wife is doomed before he pulls into the Safeway parking lot.<\/p>\n

Forget about naming your newborn after your favorite aunt. That is pass\u00e9. If you want your baby to have the \u201cright\u201d name, better call a baby-name consultant who uses statistical data, phonetic analysis, and marketing research to come up with names complementing whatever ambitions parents have for their child. The philosophy is that if we pick the \u201cright\u201d names for our children, we are giving them an advantage over other children who don\u2019t have the \u201cright\u201d names.<\/p>\n

Today a woman has the option of freezing her eggs for future use. Some mothers have frozen their eggs for their infertile daughters. That means if a daughter uses her mother\u2019s eggs and has a daughter, then the daughter she has would actually be her mother\u2019s sister. But at least she won\u2019t have to name the child. She can call a consultant. WOW! Life can get pretty complicated nowadays.<\/p>\n

Like I said, today we have many options. Most options were probably created to make life easier, but that is not always the way it works out. Sometimes options leave us confused and make it difficult to make decisions. Which makes me think \u2013 have we lost our ability to appreciate simple pleasures?<\/p>\n

God\u2019s pleasures are simple ones. Nineteenth century English preacher Frederick William Robertson puts it this way:<\/p>\n

“All God’s pleasures are simple ones;
\nthe rapture of a May morning sunshine,
\nthe stream blue and green,
\nkind words,
\nbenevolent acts,
\nthe glow of good humor.”<\/p>\n

God has much to say about simple pleasures, although that exact phrase won\u2019t be found in the Bible. He tells us to take joy in each new day (Psalm 118:24). He emphasizes contentment (Proverbs 30:8, 9; Hebrews 13:5). He loves unity not contentiousness (Psalm 133:1). He wants us to be kind and tenderhearted (Ephesians 4:32). He likes a good laugh (Numbers 22:25-31). He encourages us to get away occasionally to regroup and replenish (Matthew 14:23). He delights in children (Matthew 19:14). He paints analogous pictures that bring nature alive (Isaiah 55:12). His creation beckons us to marvel at majestic mountains, enjoy vibrant sunsets, smell fragrant roses, and calm ourselves beside still waters. Yet, some of us don\u2019t even have time to name our own babies.<\/p>\n

Life is filled with options. We make the choices. We can choose to enjoy some simple pleasures or not. But remember \u2013 life doesn\u2019t always have to be complicated. After all, if we can\u2019t decide which orange juice is best, we could just eat an orange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our world offers a variety of options that were not available a few years ago. A seemingly easy shopping list becomes complicated by the myriad of options available for each product, not to mention different brands. Orange juice alone comes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}