“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 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.
Matthew 7:7-11

Dear God, I was listening to a podcast this morning where the two men were discussing some of the things in the political news lately including the admonishment some people have felt about feeling judged for not having children or enough children. One of the arguments one of the men made for having children didn’t fit into the two main things we are being fed politically. His reasoning on the importance of having children is how it impacts us as parents. We understand love and sacrificial love in a new way when we are responsible for caring for a defenseless child. We also get a glimpse of how you feel about us in a new way.

I remember when my children were young and I first started to get that insight into how you must see me after realizing how much I loved my children. And, as Jesus says here, if I being sinful know how to love my children, how much more do you love me and want to give me the things that are good for me. Of course, you also want to withhold things that are bad for me. So this passage from Jesus isn’t a blank check you’ve given us to fill in. Jesus knows that if our child asked for a stone to eat we would deny their request and give them bread instead. And there are times when I am too ignorant to know what you are doing in a given situation so I will ask without demanding. I guess the other side of it is that sometimes I can ask too little because I do not want to be greedy or selfish.

Father, I want to show my children as much love as possible while not hurting them with the love I have for them by giving them the wrong things. I know you want to do the same for me. So help me to be exactly what you need me to be for them. And teach me how to be the man you need me to be through them. Mold me through them. Shape me. Convict me. Thank you for loving me.

I offer this to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen