Everything I want

I can’t help but smile when my children pick up some of the things I typically pray for and incorporate them into their own prayers.  My 5-year-old daughter has latched on to my oft-repeated thanksgiving to God for giving us everything we need, except she has changed it to, “Thank you for giving us everything we want.”

Part of me wants to correct her and say, “Honey, sometimes God doesn’t give us everything we want, but we can trust that He knows best what we truly need.”  But another part of me wonders whether she’s on to something: What if the things God gives us become the things we really want?  And if something is not forthcoming from His providing hand, then it’s simply something we’re not interested in?

Of course, the thing we need the absolute most is not a thing at all, but a Person.  At Christmas, we’re reminded once again how God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son that you and I may have life in Him.  I cannot think of anything I need more than that.  And this Christmas, my 5-year-old is reminding me of how I desire more and more to ultimately make Jesus everything I want.
–