I watched a grandmother with two energetic grandchildren at the swimming pool today. She was taking care of them until their mom came home from work. I am assuming all these facts based on what I saw. These were lively beautiful kids who were young, but very competent and independent in the swimming pool.  The grandmother admonished them many times about different things. She sat in a chair watching them.  She knew them.  She loved them.  She was not delighting in them. She was a bit tired and grumpy. It was obvious even to a stranger.

I wanted to urge her to delight in her grandchildren. She didn’t understand how blessed she was to have regular close contact with them. She didn’t know how much they want someone to delight in them.

We all desire from the depths of our souls:

to be known

to be cared for

to be delighted in.

Sometimes people try to care for us, but it seems that they might not really know what we like and what we need, so their efforts aren’t always well received – it doesn’t ‘hit the spot.’

Sometimes we are known and cared for, but it seems as if these significant people doing the knowing and caring are “just putting up with us.”  They don’t really delight in who we are and who we are becoming.

Finding people who know us, care for us and delight in us can be an extremely rare experience.  It is one that some people never achieve.  Rather than looking for the people that are going to know, care and delight in us, what would happen if we became proactive about knowing, caring for and delighting in the people around us?

What are some ways you can grow in knowing more about the people in your world?

What are some ways you can care more for the people in your world?

What are some ways you can delight in the people in your world?

Perhaps if we concentrate on knowing, caring and delighting in others, we might actually find the satisfaction we were looking for all the time.