Last night, Nathan said something to his Mom that took both of us by surprise. We have no idea where he learned it, but you can bet both of us were taken aback. A lot of prayer was offered that night for our three-year-old.
How often have we said something that we knew wouldn’t be received well, or done something that we just needed to do, even if we knew it wouldn’t necessarily be good for us? Me, quite often. My life is littered with dumb decisions.
If we’re lucky, the persons we told about our stupid actions, the persons who knew better will rarely tell us “I told you so.” Still, Someone very important has never told us, “I told you so.” Instead, He forgives us for walking away from Him, and welcomes us back into His arms. We just need to pray and tell Him about it.
Now some people believe prayer is just you talking to yourself. Believe that if you will. I believe Someone listens to me when I pray. That Someone – my God, the God of Abraham, and my Dad and Jesus’ Dad – understands that more often than not, I will screw up, and acknowledges when I am contrite and truly sorry for having done something I know won’t please Him. Like I should be to Nathan, God is an understanding Father, and will never take your decision to do something – even if it is obviously against His will – against you if you return to Him and genuinely say sorry for having done it.
After all, we can’t be all expected to be white sheep. We weren’t created like sheep. We’ve got minds of our own and a free will that, more often than not, comes back to bite us in the butt. What else can we do but run to Him before we get into bigger trouble?
