Where Is the Please?

Well, there is no doubt; I have to remember to pray differently than I am used to praying - especially if The Lord's Prayer is involved. Why a change? It is all tied to a very interesting insight supplied by my six-year-old granddaughter in Belgium.

At the chapel on the nearby base (our son-in-law is a major in the Air Force), The Lord's Prayer is often recited in unison by the congregation. After a recent service, our daugther commented to our granddaughter that she had heard her reciting the Lord's Prayer and that she had done very well. Our granddaughter replied that the prayer wasn't very nice. When our daughter inquired as to why the prayer wasn't nice, our granddaughter responded: "It says 'give us this day our daily bread,' and you don't even say 'Please!'"

Caught me off guard. But it did start me to thinking. How often do I (or any of us for that matter) pray to God with an attitude that we are deserving and He needs to take care of our needs right now? While I don't believe that was the attitude of the scripture regarding The Lord's Prayer, I do believe that has been my attitude on occasion. What about you?

The truth is that I am not deserving of God's blessings or His provisions. He has chosen to offer those because of His love for all of us. But He is sovereign in the distribution of blessings. He can choose to bless you in a certain way, but He is under no obligation to bless me in the same way. In fact God knows that I am better off if He tells me "No" rather than "Yes" about some things. He also knows that I am not ready to properly receive or use the blessing that I may have requested.

Having taught our children (and now they are teaching their children) to say "Please" when asking for something is part of the process of developing good manners and being polite. While we might all consider the use of the word "please" with God, there are a few basics that are absolutes and not just considerations:

• God does not owe any of us anything.


• God is the giver of every good and perfect gift.


• We are deserving of nothing.


• Every blessing we receive from God is specific to who we are and to what we need.


• We are to approach God remembering always that we are the created; He is the Creator!

I think that I will listen to children more - they catch some things that we adults just overlook. My granddaughter made me think today!

The Weather in Texas

I live in Texas. That's not bragging, it is just plain fact. One of the chief topics of discussion in Texas (except for the Presdential Primary Election which is today March 4 in our state) is the weather. In Texas we say things like: "If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait a minute and it will change." We say things like that because they are true.

On Sunday, March 2, 2008, the temperature was between 75 and 80 degrees depending on your specific location in Texas. Sunday night and Monday morning it stormed with large amounts of rain accompanied by thunder and lightning. Monday night it snowed. And now Tuesday morning is highlighted by sunshine and warming temperatures.

I wonder if when God created the world, He determined that He would like to have a labratory to use for weather experimentation. If that was part of His plan, I believe that He chose Texas as that lab. Now, realize that other than observation I have no factual information to substantiate this claim. But then most of us don't really need facts to tie down our opinions or even beliefs.

The emails that arrive in our inboxes everyday that we in turn send to others who send them to others who send them to others (spam is so appropriately named - no offense intended to the lovers or makers of Spam) come with no pretense of verifiable information but they often supply their own verification so that we won't check for ourselves. If we saw it on TV, got it off the internet, received it in an email, or read it at the checkout lane at the grocery store, it must be true. (Anyone need a Brooklyn Bridge? Get them while their hot. Only a few more remain. Today they are only $19.95. If you act in the next hour, you will get a second one free. This may also come with a set of knives used to chop down trees and slice tomatoes)

It disturbs me that we buy into lies so easily and yet we reject the truth just as quickly. I wonder how much truth I may be rejecting. I also wonder how much truth you may be rejecting (actually I wonder about you more than me).

The weather in Texas does keep changing a lot. Maybe it is a sign of God's gift of variety to us. Truth stays consistent. A person telling the truth can repeat his account multiple times without hesistation because there are no changes to create in the truth. Lies continually change because the teller cannot keep up with the story consistently because it did not happen the way he tells it. Today is an election day in Texas (and some other states as well). I hope the voters are sorting out truth from lies and voting for the candidates that best exemplify the truth.