Your will be done. Really? Who says that? I tease our sons that the line from Princess Bride, “As you wish.” Should be their go to response for their wives. Whether you prefer “as you wish” or “your will be done,” submission is what the speaker of either phrase is granting someone.
Twice, during prayer, Jesus models this for us. The first time is when Jesus is asked to teach the disciples to pray. In this model prayer Jesus simply states “Your will be done.” (Matt 6:10 & Luke 11:2). Jesus is teaching us to seek God’s will when we pray. The second prayer is when Jesus is praying in the garden. He not only prays this once, but twice that night. “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39). Here Jesus is asking for a pass from the cross and even more so, a pass from taking on of all the sins of the world creating a separation between Him and His father. Then He pauses and says, “nevertheless” or never mind – not my will, but yours.
Praying for God’s will takes courage. Even as a young girl, I was always afraid to just openly pray for God’s will. What if He wanted me to do something crazy like leave my mom and dad and go to the mission field. Don’t judge, it always crossed my mind. In all seriousness, last night as I was out watering plants, I was praying for a break. I was just telling God from the bottom of my heart that I needed a break. I was asking for just one day to take it easy, one day just for me. I will admit, I mentioned a spa day and even possibly a quick weekend getaway. When it suddenly occurred to me how selfishly I was praying. I immediately recognized that I should be praying for the energy and stamina to do what God has placed in front of me, not praying for a break. I had to throw up the same “never mind” that Jesus did when He was praying. I was praying for Angela’s will not God’s will.
I’ve been called out on this before. Once my daughter was dating a guy I didn’t really like. I was praying for every kind of break-up you could imagine. One of them would find someone else, her eyes would be open, his parents would move out of state…. As they were getting a little more serious, I decided to rally the troops. I did what any praying mom would do. I called my best, praying friend and asked her to join me. We know where two or more are gathered, there is power in that prayer. With her help, we would make this breakup happen. However, I didn’t get the response from my friend that I was expecting. She simply asked me if I had thought about praying for this young man and praying that he would develop a relationship with Christ. Ouch, NO! I had not thought about praying that way. I was praying for a breakup. Again, praying for Angela’s will not God’s will.
How do we know God’s will so we can pray that way? Ask. Just simply ask Him and then listen. The more time you spend with Him, the more you will know His will, and the more you will desire to submit to it. Don’t worry, the odds are really slim that He will ask you to sell everything and go to Siberia.
Yesterday started off as a better than usual day. When I pulled up to the window at Starbucks, I was informed my drink had been paid for by the person in front of me. You know, this act of kindness works best in a drive-through line. A couple of times I have been fortunate enough for a kind person to purchase my pop at 7-11. In these cases, it is always a little awkward. I first try to convince them it’s not necessary to pay for my pop. Then I thank them over and over, as they pay my bill, before walking out of the store usually at the same time and thanking them again until I get in my car. There actually is the ability to deny the acceptance of the gift, and there is no anonymity. However, at the drive-through window, accepting the gift is the only option. It is already paid for.
I’m embarrassed to tell this story, but this weekend I made a cooking mistake you would expect a 12 year old to make, but not someone who has been putting food on the table for MANY years. I was making macaroni and cheese with my mind on a million other tasks. Right before I put the last cheese in, I thought the pasta had a different smell to it and immediately realized what I had done. I used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk. I had no idea how this was going to turn out, but went on as planned. We dubbed it dessert mac and cheese. While the concoction was edible, it was really rich and a few bites went a long ways.
How is it that what used to bring us joy and pleasure can over time be taken for granted or even more strangely turn in to an annoyance that grates on our last nerve?
A couple of weeks ago I determined to get my emails under control. This was spurred on after spending a couple of hours one day completely clearing out my emails only to wake up the next morning with 43 brand new, unread emails. For some of you, this would not be a problem at all, however, I fall into the group that cannot stand to have any red numbers showing up on my phone. I determined to take one week and unsubscribe to every email that showed up in my inbox that I didn’t want. So, instead of the normal 20 seconds it would take every morning to click and delete all of the unwanted emails, I opened each and every one and went through the clicks required to unsubscribe. Many of them required me to unsubscribe multiple times before it actually took. 
Isn’t it amazing how sometimes you can be in the right place at the right time? There is a new restaurant not far from our house. As you are standing in line waiting to order, they go down the line passing out shake samples. When they run out of samples, the next person in line gets a cow bell. If you ring the cowbell as you are ordering, you get a free order of fries. Twice, I got the last shake sample and Scott got the cowbell. He rang it with full gusto to get his free fries. We were in the right place at the right time.
Okay, don’t judge, but I’m still reading on the book that I referenced several months ago. It is a 28 day study of the Lord’s prayer. Yes, I’m going on about 4 months working on this study. This is partly because I have read some sections a couple of times, partly because I’ve set the book aside for days at a time, and partly because I have to divide up what I am to read each day. Anyway, I’m to the part of the study pertaining to the line “Forgive our sins as we forgive those that trespass against us” As I read this chapter, I arrogantly began to make a mental list of all the people I have forgiven. I was reminded of how I had been treated at various times in my life, how God had been faithful through those times, and how I was better off by going through those experiences despite what others had done to me. After several minutes of patting myself on the back, I put the study aside for the night and went to bed.
On this little weekend trip that Scott and I took a couple of weeks ago, one particular night we ate at a local restaurant known not only for the amazing food, but more so for the quantity of food. We left the restaurant miserable. As we were driving back to the hotel, I mentioned that I needed to go walk or something in order to feel better. This came up in conversation right as we passed a Wal-mart. Scott suggested we just go walk around the store until we felt better. This idea was genius and one reason why I keep him around. As we were getting out of the car, I was focused on a meaningful walk through the aisles of Wal-mart. I described to Scott how we would attack the store one aisle at a time at a strong walking pace. I left my purse in the car, cued up my watch to track our steps, and began marching off our plan. About isle two, the distractions started. We were pacing through the pharmacy section when I remembered we were about out of toothpaste. I was able to grab the toothpaste without hardly slowing down. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of the distractions. We spent several minutes picking out a magazine. The kitchen gadget isle was extremely captivating. I’m too embarrassed to tell you how much time we spent in the Christmas section. By then, our pace and plan were gone and in reality, our hands were too full from the random items we were carrying to walk anyway. While our little walk did help, it also cost us over $60. to get out of the store. Thank goodness at least Scott had his wallet. The second reason I keep him around.
Just recently Scott and I took a weekend road trip. For the majority of the trip, Scott was driving, and I took on the role of navigator. This is not my strongest skill. Don’t get me wrong. I’m great at giving directions. It’s just that my directions are not always great. I would put the destination into Google maps and off we would go until I thought I had a better plan than what was on the map. One time I told Scott to head down the highway for fifty some miles until we came to Hwy 271. In my mind I knew our destination is south or left of our current location. As we approached Hwy 271, it was a right hand turn or north. I told Scott to keep going because that couldn’t be the correct turn. Yes, we got to make a u-turn in about 5 miles and go back to the turn the map told us to take. The road only went north for a few miles before it headed back south. Another time, we were on a 4 lane highway with one-way side roads on each site. I had directions to the hotel pulled up on the map, but it was taking us way past the hotel and entering in on the back side of the hotel. As we approached the hotel, I could see it and there was an exit. I yelled for Scott to exit, he slammed on the breaks and headed for the exit. What do you know, we couldn’t get to the hotel from that exit without hopping over a couple of curbs and driving though the grass. My sudden change in plans took us to another highway and almost landed us on a turnpike headed out of town.
Just the other day, Scott and I were shopping for some furniture. Ironically I somehow found the most expensive chairs in the entire store without looking at a single tag, and Scott found every orange chair in the entire county. I reminded him that orange is not a color we decorate with and he reminded me of our budget. My point is, we find what we look for.
View From My Shoes 