Thursday, January 23, 2014

Buttons


"UGH!" She cried.
I turned to see her pouting down at her chest, a button had come loose. 
He arms started to flail and then fall at her sides as a sign of defeat. She started to cry again.
"Lilly!" I called. "No one can help you if you don't ask."
I crouched down to fix her button, pretty irrattated as this is a daily job - reminding my girls to ASK for help instead of losing their cool.

Then it clicked.
Instead of fussing at her I said, "Sometimes Lilly, you teach me a lesson."

How often have I found myself in a situation that I felt defeated and how simple a task it was to fix for God. Yet I don't ask for His help. I sit and wallow in self defeat. Pouting. Maybe even a flail of my arms too. My situations to God are as easy to Him to fix as it for me to button my daughters dress.

Why do we feel like our problems are too big? Too much to ask. Why do we focus on the problem so much it consumes us to the point we don't see anything clearly anymore. Why is asking for help seem helpless?

But here my daughter reminded me how a simple request, a simple sentence can truly turn the whole situation around.

Does prayer seem too good to be true sometimes? Just ask and it will be given? Or it feels uncertain. What if it doesn't get answered? Is my faith weak? Is God really there?

Well, as a mom. I'll say that sometimes when my girls ask me for things, I may tell them no. Actually I tell them no a lot. They are young and they don't know how things can hurt them or be bad for them. Sometimes I tell them not yet. Because if we leave now the library wont be open. And then there are those times I say yes.

And God, as our ultimate Father, answers. He sees things we don't. He knows that some things may actually hurt. He knows now is too soon. And He knows when to say Yes.

What needs to happen most of all, is to just ask. No matter how much or how little faith. No matter how long it's been since we've asked your request. No mater how uncertain we are. No matter how simple the request or how big. How silly or how needed. He wants us to JUST ASK!!!

No, this doesn't mean I have total patience now when my girls freak out over something that can be easily fixed if they would just ask me. But I will use it as a reminder to myself as best I can that no matter how crazy, silly, or desperate my situation may feel to me, it isn't too much to God.


"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and door will be opened to you." Luke 11:9
Just do it.