Recently, while my husband was away, our four-year-old daughter and I were down on our hands and knees scrubbing  mud off of the kitchen floor. I was happy to have her  help and companionship, and was feeling blessedly released from my normal irritability while cleaning; thus, I thought I had a fairly good spirit about the chore.

 

Then she bubbles up with pure joy, and says, “Mama, I just LOVE doing this with you. And Daddy is going to be so happy when he comes home. Just think how happy he is going to be because his girls cleaned this dirty floor! I love him so much.”

 

Right there, from my preschooler, was the lesson for me to learn that day about pleasure and godliness. She could not have felt more pure pleasure had she been handed a brand new baby doll to dress up and play with. She couldn’t have even felt more pleasure if her Daddy had been there, praising her good work. She was awash in delight just thinking about how this man she loves would enjoy the product of her labors. That was her key to experiencing pleasure and delight while serving God: loving her father.

 

In Matthew 18,  Jesus  instructs us that we must humble ourselves as children if we are to become great in the kingdom of heaven. Humility was the impetus behind my daughter’s joy. She did not give a moment of thought to herself while she was on the floor, washing mud. She did not even think, as I did, of the loveliness of the archetype of femininity, of Cinderella, for example, who hums contentedly while she scrubs her own floor, and is beautiful because, unlike those ugly step sisters, she does not feel that she’s above menial labor, but instead, sets out to do the work before her with dignity and grace. My daughter didn’t consider any of these things; she merely loved her father and allowed that love to imbue her service of him with joy and pleasure.

 

And my joy, too, can come from having a loving heart for others, and, even more importantly, a loving heart toward my Father in heaven. When Jesus says that the greatest commandment is “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND,” He is showing us where to find joy. We find joy in loving God with every fiber of our mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical being, and in knowing that “it is God who is at work in [us], both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) How often do we consider that we actually participate in God’s good pleasure? God’s pleasure. We, through His grace, give our Father in heaven pleasure. Would our hearts become more joyful if we approached God in prayer as a daughter, eager to please her Abba Daddy? Can we, by faith, think of our Heavenly Father with the delight our young daughters lavish upon their fallen and sinful earthly fathers, and then, as a result, find joy in serving Him?

 

Jesus does not present before us a requirement of loving God and then leave us on our own; rather, He  gives us the Holy Spirit, who produces in our hearts fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The first two on the list are intimately related. Love and joy—so often , and the one so often is our gateway into the garden of the other.