This morning a friend and I met at our church to do some decluttering and organizing in the kitchen. She brought a label-maker. Cool little gadget. The only thing is neither of us had ever used one. After punching every button several times, we sighed concluding, “Guess we’ll have to read the instructions.” I can’t stand reading the instructions.
My husband is like this about driving. If we can’t find our destination (notice I’m not saying we’re lost because of course, that could never happen), we aren’t going to stop and ask for help.
When our children were little, I’d watch them get frustrated with something they were trying to accomplish – dressing a doll or completing a hard puzzle.
“Can I help you?”
“No, I can do it.”
Sometimes I’d get a ‘yes’.
As they started moving through the early grades of school and recreation-league sports, I’d offer, “If’s okay to ask for help. In fact, asking for help shows you’re smart because you’re going to someone who knows more.”
After listening to myself say this a few times, the words returned to me.
I approached life for a lot of years thinking, I can do it.
I. Me.
It’s a good feeling to figure something out, to accomplish a challenge, to complete a goal. To improve. To learn.
All good.
And what about all that we’re missing?
“You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4.2b)
Asking for help is hard. God provides us practice.
Practice giving help: the honor of being asked, the pleasure of providing. Blessing.
Practice receiving help: An exercise in humility. A practice in partnership. A safeguard from pride. Blessing.
God wants us to know we need Him. All day. Every day.
“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.” (Matthew 7.7-8)
Dear God,
Teach me to live dependent on You. You are all that I need. I want to reflect to my children that I believe this, that I believe You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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