#Ummmmm...Ask! 2018.01.23
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in therapy, it's accountability. And, what I mean by that is, I have lived most my life as an extremely selfish person (insecurities have a habit of doing that, so…). It was so bad that I had firmly established this "victim mentality" in my thinking, having some self-righteous excuse to be upset or angry or whatever. I remember hashing things out with a brother, venting about how he "let me down" and after calmly listening to me, he simply asked, "Did you ever tell me what you expected from me?" That simply shut me up (and got me even more ticked, but I think that proved his point.) I expected him to do something that he knew nothing about. And it made sense in my head because it was something I (thought I) did. As I’ve shared in the past, therapy has been an amazing gift from God!
The same can be said with parenting, but with a different spin. I have tried to instill in my son that if there is something you don’t understand, or have missed, there is nothing wrong in asking questions. School, life, friends, dealing with parents… questions are ok. I guess the one thing that I worry about is my son picking up on my "victim mentality", so hopefully, asking questions & defining expectations will help prevent that.
What can be said about my son, or any child for that matter, can also be said about us. How often do we expect our children to understand something? Especially since we’ve drilled it into their heads for however long? Even more often, how many times do we expect something from our Father, even though we didn’t ask for it?
I don’t know about you, but I have a problem where I expect some things from God - A happy day, life, money, good health, a stress-free day, … the list goes on & on. And yet, I don’t recall asking Him for these things (probably because He won’t give me most of these things bc I would be even more spoiled). And since I really want these things, I should be praying for them fervently & consistently… but I’m not.
I found this gif hilarious. It definitely should not imply that God lets us down.
But maybe, it begins to show how we may think that we are so deserving, and leads us to feeling let down.
Matthew 6:11 states "give us today our daily bread". God wants us to talk to Him, ask Him for everything, even for the things that we get on a daily basis. But it’s not because He is this needy or faulted Father - He wants us to come to Him for everything because we need to make it a habit to ask Him, talk to Him… because He is the only person who can do anything about our needs.
It’s very easy to forget where our "resources" come from. Most of us live independent lives, especially when it comes to making a living. We spend 40+ hours a day, so we can provide for our families, and it’s unfortunately all too common to forget that God is the One who gives it to us.
You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. | ||
James 4:2 |
Do you not remember that, no matter what you do, only God can make our lives less hectic, or our emotions more balanced? As disciples, we all know that we have failed at leading our own lives towards "happiness" - that’s why we dedicated our lives to God!! God provides for us everything that we’ll need for today. There is no need to worry about tomorrow. Israel was commanded to collect manna for today - When they tried to store it up, it rotted. Spend some time and have a sincere moment with God, thanking Him for humble mindset that He’s trying to instill in us, but also how He’s always there, giving us what we truly need for the day.
