Honey would you...?

            My husband and I had an interesting argument lately about how we are raising our son. We are both new parents and still trying to figure out what kind of parents we are going to be. We had many conversations before our son was born about how my husband was going to be very involved in our son’s life even as an infant. Unlike the stereotype of the American man, my husband is very good with children and babies so we did not imagine this would be a very difficult thing. As it turns out, babies naturally need their mom all the time!

As my son developed a bit, I began asking my husband if he would like to do things with him. “Honey, would you like to feed him?” “Hun, would you like to see if you can get him to sleep?” “Do you want to give him his bath?” The crazy thing is, my husband was already doing most of these things! I was trying to make sure he got enough time with his son, even though he was already making sure of that himself.

He had finally had enough and told me that it makes feel belittled that I am always asking him to do things for our son, as if he doesn’t want to do them. He also said he felt like that was the majority of what we talked about. We could not get through an evening without my asking him to do something and it was killing our friendship.

In Mathew 6 I just read the Lord’s prayer for the hundredth time. I realized right before Jesus tells us how to pray He says, “Don’t [pray] like [the hypocrites], because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him. Therefore you should pray like this…” (Italics added). I have heard pastors say that when you see the word “therefore” in the Bible, you should ask what it is there for. I guess I never did that in this case until now. Jesus is telling us not to ask God to do things He is already doing.

Just like my husband became hurt by my asking him to do things he wanted to do for our son, God is hurt when we ask Him to provide for us (His children) as if He is not going to. It becomes all we talk to him about and kills our relationship with God. Instead Jesus tells us to ask God about His will, that it be done on earth. He reminds us to apologize to God for what we have done to hurt Him and thank Him for what He is doing to provide for us. He also reminds us to acknowledge God’s greatness and give Him praise. How much better would my relationship with my husband be if I complimented him, apologized for what I do wrong, thank him for the effort he puts into our relationship, and asked him about himself?

God, I am sorry for asking You to do things for me that You already promised to do. Thank you for what You are doing in my life to provide for me. You are so much greater than my mind can ever imagine! Please let Your will be done in my life and teach me how to love you better. Amen.