Delight yourself in the LORD

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. psalm 37.4

i meditated on this verse today. while meditating i realized that 'and' is one of the most important words in this verse. because i am FIRST called to delight myself in the LORD (AND THEN) He gives me the desires of my heart. how easy it is for me to want to run ahead and have the desires of my heart met first, without delighting in Him first. i find that when i delight myself first in the Lord, i am not worried about the timing or how or if my desires are met. because our focus is on Him, and delighting in Him, and who is more beautiful or worthy than Him? everything else, even my heart's desires pale in comparison. this is how my husband & i felt about marriage. we desired to get married someday, but kept delighting in the LORD. He brought us together at just the right time & guided our relationship to the altar of marriage. both my husband & i watched in awe as our relationship unfolded so beautifully & our hearts' desires were met after we had delighted ourselves in Him.

when we delight in Him, we worship Him. we were designed for worship & to worship Him, and are most fulfilled when we keep Him on the throne instead of ourselves or our idols.
what are the different ways to delight in Him? here are some i thought about:

do i delight in Him in my speech: in what i say to others, in what i say about others, in what i say about Him to others?
do i delight in Him in my conduct: in normal, good days where things go my way & in tough, bad days where everything seems to be going wrong and falling apart?
do i delight in Him in my thoughts: in what i think about things, others, circumstances, or do i let anxiety to creep in?
do i delight in the fact that He is LORD of my life, LORD over the earth, LORD in every good & bad circumstance?
do i delight in His love, faithfulness, mercy, grace, goodness, justice, holiness, & purity?
do i delight in His plans for me, His timing, providence, and guidance?

this ties in perfectly with a conversations i was having with my husband today. we were discussing a wonderful decoration for our future childrens' nursery that i had found. since i am such a planner i wanted to buy it to store it away for the future. hubby suggested that we wait & purchase it when the time came for us to start a family. i became frustrated but he gently reminded me to check where my heart was and see if my desires were being so elevated that i was not delighting myself in the LORD first. (i am so blessed to have such an incredible, Godly, spiritual leader for a husband.) as i reflected i realized that i was not delighting first in the LORD, and letting my heart's desires get ahead of me. one of my heart's desires is to have a family someday, whether that be biologically or by adoption, or both. i realized that i needed to step back and delight myself in the LORD for now. by doing so, i am worshiping Him, allowing Him to direct my path, & putting my focus on Him. therefore, i am being open to His plans, and whether they involve a future family or not, because He knows what is best. and i think back to my relationship with my husband, and the wonderful journey we took to come to the altar of marriage. i await expectantly to see where He will take my husband and i in the future, and no matter where and what that looks like, i know it will be absolutely amazing and blessed because i have delighted and continue to delight myself in Him. and whenever i do that, i fall even deeper in love with my LORD.