{"id":6083,"date":"2023-02-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6083"},"modified":"2023-03-03T23:23:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T05:23:30","slug":"simple-pleasures-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6083","title":{"rendered":"Simple Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Abundant Life: Riches money can\u2019t buy\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Become-like-little-children-Churchartpro.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Become-like-little-children-Churchartpro.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6084\" width=\"244\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Become-like-little-children-Churchartpro.jpg 684w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Become-like-little-children-Churchartpro-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Become-like-little-children-Churchartpro-600x881.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The abundant life enjoys simple pleasures. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God\u2019s pleasures are simple ones. Nineteenth century English preacher Frederick William Robertson puts it this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">All God&#8217;s pleasures are simple ones;<br>the rapture of a May morning sunshine,<br>the stream blue and green,<br>kind words,<br>benevolent acts,<br>the glow of good humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Children capture the essence of enjoying simple pleasures in life. No wonder Jesus says unless we can become as little children, we can\u2019t inherit the Kingdom. (Matthew 18:3) He is telling us we can learn a lot from children. God even lovingly refers to us as His children. (1 John 3:1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As children we were amazed by yellow daffodils and mesmerized by watching ants carry ten times their weight across the yard. Too soon we become jaded and take our sunsets for granted. We no longer see a colorful sky radiant with colorful reddish, pinkish, and orange hues. We just wish the sun would go down so the light will stop shining in our eyes while we\u2019re trying to drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God has much to say about simple pleasures such as enjoying each new day (Psalm 118:24), being content (Proverbs 30:8, 9; Hebrews 13:5), living in unity (Psalm 133:1), being kind (Ephesians 4:32), laughing (Numbers 22:25-31), delighting in children (Matthew 19:14), and appreciating nature (Isaiah 55:12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, God\u2019s creation beckons us to marvel at majestic mountains, admire vibrant sunsets, smell fragrant roses, and calm ourselves beside still waters. You might say God did the hard work of creating all of this so we could enjoy these simple pleasures in life. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201c<\/em><em>\u2026I have come that they may have life and that they<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>may have it more abundantly.\u201d ~John 10:10 (KJV)<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Abundant Life: Riches money can\u2019t buy\u2026 The abundant life enjoys simple pleasures. &nbsp; God\u2019s pleasures are simple ones. Nineteenth century English preacher Frederick William Robertson puts it this way: All God&#8217;s pleasures are simple ones;the rapture of a May &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6083\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=6083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6235,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083\/revisions\/6235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}