Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Ah-Sis?

At church, we've been going through a book together. (The Relationship Principles of Jesus, by Tom Holladay) Everyone is reading the daily devotionals, and learning, together, about Jesus's interaction with others, and how He did relationships while He was here on earth. (By "everyone", I mean "everyone but me is staying on track with this". I've been sick, Allie has been sick, and I am currently feeling caught-up on my readings, because I'm *only* 3 days behind. Sigh.)

Last week, one day's focus was on prayer. Now, I've been a believer for 20+ years, so I've heard/read a lot about prayer in that time. Increasing the time I spend in prayer, especially for my family, is one of my goals for 2011. (Ok, I said it out loud now, so I've created some accountability, right?)

A few things I read, last week, on prayer:
  • Jesus taught that our job is to pray with confidence.
  • God is answering many of your prayers in ways you can't yet see --in ways you may not see until you get to Heaven. To acknowledge this doesn't provide an excuse; it recognizes our limitations and expresses confidence in God's perfect plan and power.
  • Pray until one of two things happens: God changes the situation, or God changes you.
  • Your persistence is instead an indicator of your desire and your dependence on God. Unless you truly depend on God, you will not persist in the conversation.
That last one has to be my very favorite. As the mommy of *gulp* a toddler, I am learning that repetition is the name of the game. If Allie loves to do something once, she loves to do it over and over and over again. She loves the same Baby Einstein video over and over, the same one baby doll to play with, the same 'hang me upside down and tickle me' game over and over, and thanks to her picky mama, the same foods all the time. Sometimes, let's be honest, it's just annoying. I don't want to see the episode of Special Agent Oso I've already seen 50 bazillion times before today, but she is just as excited about it now as the first time she saw it. The most annoying thing would have to be "ah-sis" (what's this). At only 13.5 months old, Allie already points at seemingly everything in her little world and asks, with an adorably inquisitive look on her face, "ah-sis?" The thing about it is, she will point to the same object 10, 20, 50 times in a row, and ask "ah-sis" over and over and over. My logical brain says that she's trying to learn the words, and learn how I'm saying them by listening to them repetitiously. My emotional self wants to just say, "I said it's this!!!" 

So back to the quote, "Your persistence is instead an indicator of your desire and your dependence on God. Unless you truly depend on God, you will not persist in the conversation." Sometimes I feel like I've said the same prayers a million times. Like I've asked God for the same protection, provision, healing, and grace as many times as Allie has asked me "ah-sis". At times, I start to pray something, and stop myself, because I think, "That's the same thing I asked for yesterday, and the day before that, and the month before that..." I love that I'm finally learning that this asking over and over is not an annoyance to my generous God. Instead, it is a sign that I'm depending solely on Him to provide what I'm asking for.

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