The Sweetness of Soul

Proverbs 13: 12, 19

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools detest turning from evil.

As a parent, you learn not to tell kids about going to the amusement park or going swimming. If you do, be prepared for the endless stream of “Daddy, when are we going?” “Can we go now?” Worse still is if something comes up and you can’t do it. You crush your kids’ dreams and cause them all kinds of grief. It is like the pain of a person looking for a job being told “We are not hiring today”. The human heart breaks when a hope is deferred.

I fear that some give up and refuse to dream or pursue a certain path because we fear that our dream will not come true. We give up before we gain the victory that God has for us. God can be trusted with our desires. When we face disappointment, we can go to him for help and keep pressing on until we experience the sweetness of the soul when our longing is fulfilled.