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The Gift of a Cheerful Heart

Then thousand thousand precious gifts my daily thanks employ;

nor is the least a cheerful heart that tastes those gifts with joy. 

This is the fourth verse in a hymn titled When All Your Mercies, O My God, written by Joseph Addison in 1712. If you'd like to sing the verse, it's written in common meter, which just means you can use the tune of Amazing Grace or O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing or a bunch of other common tunes to sing it. I've been singing through a hymn book in my private morning worship, and until a couple days ago I had never heard of this hymn. 

The verse above is a beautiful thought, isn't it? Not only does God give us thousand thousand gifts, one of His kindest gifts is a cheerful heart that can enjoy them. Food, work, home, friends, family, all of them are good gifts, and another very good gift is the ability to enjoy them with a cheerful heart. 

So this too is another reason to give thanks. We can thank God for cinnamon buns and ice cream, music and laughter, friends and family, and we can thank God that our hearts can enjoy them. We are made in the image of a God who delights, and this delighting God has showered us with good gifts, let us be thankful and enjoy them with a cheerful heart. 

What I'm Reading 

    • A History of Britain in 21 Women by Jenni Murray. This was on my reading list last summer but I'm just getting to it now.
    • I finished The Second Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerine Jr. It was good. I liked the first one better. 
    • Beholding and Becoming by Ruth Cho Simons has become my new Sunday read. 
    • The Diary and Life of Andrew Bonar by Marjory Bonar is my before bed read.
    • Gentle and Lowly by Dan Ortlund is my audio book right now. The author reads it and does a fantastic job

What I'm Enjoying 

    • My patio couch 
    • Reading more books. I canceled my Amazon Prime membership for over the summer so I haven't been watching TV, which has forced me to read more books. 
    • Marc Scibilia's new album Mindy. 
    • Peonies from my sister-in-law 

To win souls and know God more, and then to be in the kingdom is 'all my desire.'  Andrew Bonar 1872

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