This morning during breakfast, as the boys were eating bagels and eggs, I took the occasion to lead them in a simple devotional of one of my favorite texts, Psalm 84. In particular, I highlighted verses 1,2, and 10:

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I tried to explain the last point, about being a doorkeeper, but it was a bit lost on them. They just wondered why a doorman wouldn’t just come in from the cold.

So I asked my five year old: “Would you rather sleep in a cold hard uncomfortable bed next to Mommy, or on a very warm cozy bed with a wicked stranger?”

His response, unsurprisingly, “A warm bed with Mommy.”

*grin*

It took a few more tries to impress upon him that that was not one of the choices, in this analogy. At which point, he acknowledged the obvious: better discomfort with one he loved than comfortable surroundings with one he detests.

May God help us to so love Him that all the “dwelling places” of sin and evil would hold no attractiveness to us.