Our 4 year old is scary smart in a lot of ways. For example, she has a lot of questions lately about death (due to the loss of a friend) and is trying to make sense of it all – which is hard for adults, let alone a preschooler! The kinds of questions she’s been asking make me feel like she’s a lot older than what she is…and then she prays for this friend and two of her favorite dogs to come back to life, and I can see my toddler again.
But, she has a speech delay. She’s been in therapy for about a year now, and we’ve seen great improvements! I love hearing what she works on with her therapist each week and catching her practicing the new sounds on her own as she walks around the house.
One way we try to help her is to be very intentional about our word choice and how we pronounce sounds. And even though she’s gotten very good at communicating and finding different ways to say what she’s thinking if we can’t understand her first attempts, it seems like we are always telling her to “use your words.”
As her parents, we typically know what she’s asking for when she points to something or screeches in frustration. But still, we remind her to “use your words.”
The other day, I couldn’t help but think about how God must feel the same way about us.
During his “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus says:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:7-11
I’ve mentioned before that prayer is one of my areas of spiritual weakness.
I think about God all the time. It’s easy for me to give Him credit when I’m speaking with others. I enjoy Bible study and learning new things about His Word.
But I am pretty awful at stopping to take the time to actually talk to Him.
So many of us fall into this trap of “God already knows what I need or want,” or maybe this sounds familiar “He already knows what will happen so why ask Him for anything?”
And yes, He does know, but as His children, He still wants us to ask. His omniscient knowledge doesn’t change his love, care, or concern for you.
In James 1:5 we are told that “If any of [us] lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” And when we don’t ask – even when we hate God – “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
God can’t help but give us good things: It’s the very nature of who He is and what He does.
As Christians, He loves us like a father loves his children. He wants to hear from us. He wants us to “use our words.”
Thanks for reading. And thanks to all of you who have encouraged me to keep writing – even when life gets busy.