The small things

Have you ever felt like you were bothering God with your prayers? Praying for your daughter to get over a cough when you know a woman dying of cancer? Praying for an additional need of $400 for tires when there are people without jobs and food? Praying for your daughter to make the middle school volleyball team when there are kids who can’t walk? Baseball scholarships when there are kids who can’t afford pencils and shoes for school? (Please don’t misunderstand, I have some serious needs too, I’m just choosing not to share some of our more intense needs with family members for their protection). I read a devotional this weekend, an excerpt from a book by John MacArthur II. In a nutshell it said if it matters to you it matters to God. Used the example that as parents there is nothing in our kid’s lives that is too small for us to pay attention. I think about the things that are important to my kids. I have sat in 30 degree temperatures in freezing rain to watch my son play baseball. I have napped on wooden bleachers at a volleyball tournament with three games being played and kids running up and down said bleachers because we had to be there at 6:30 and it was two hours away. I know all about Spongebob, Pokemon and Icarly. I have read the Princess Diaries. I watch baseball, basketball and football on TV. I am working on my second hand made blanket this fall for another friend of one of my children. I buy the favorite flavor of Gatorade. Skim milk for my husband and vitamin D milk for the kids, because they like it better. I could go on and on, but I think the point is made that my kids are important to me, and I am interested in every aspect of their lives, even the “little things”. (Side note, this carries over to grandparents. I was asked to work the concession stand at the soccer game this week with Nate to make money for the baseball team and I have a commitment at church. My parents are working the concession stand with Nate. And this doesn’t embarrass him, he thinks it’s cool. Great parents, great kid.) If I put God in the role of my heavenly father, then I believe He cares about what is important to me. Matthew 7:11 says “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. (NLT)”
Recently I have been praying for some needs. Big needs and small needs, and I pray believing God will answer. I pray believing so much that God will answer that I fight disappointment when he doesn’t.
This verse says ask him. I will continue to ask him, and believe when he doesn’t do what I ask (find the lost cell phone last Thursday night) that there is a reason he didn’t answer my way, a lesson to be learned, growth opportunity to be had. I believe God wants to do great things for his children. I know my biggest challenge is aligning my view that his way is the best way. I also won’t forget that if it matters to me, it matters to him.