I recently taught a lesson to the children at church about Matthew 7:7-12. (I could remember teaching it before, not too long ago, so the Lord must have really wanted me to pay attention this time!)
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”
This is an easy one to illustrate with kids. You just need bread and a stone. Of course, that’s one of the ways that Jesus is a genius. It’s so simple, a child can understand it. And yet it’s so profound that the Sunday School teacher is still pondering it weeks later.
I think it might be inevitable that when talking about asking God for things and being given those things, we end up talking about the times when we don’t get what we ask for.
I’m hoping this wasn’t a distortion but I talked to the children about how, with their parents, sometimes they ask for the stone, but they’re given the bread. Our mums and dads don’t want us to break our teeth. We might stomp and whine and pout because we really do want that stone. But our parents love us, so they keep saying ‘no.’
I hope we can see how our Heavenly Father is like this. I ask for things that seem really good to me, but when he says ‘no’ and gives me something else instead, I can trust that he is acting for my good.
How do I know? As Jesus says, ‘If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’
As an aside – If you’re reading or watching stuff that tells you to always say ‘yes’ to your children, even when they’re asking for the wrong things, please reject this. Our children do not know what’s good for them. That’s one of the reasons God gave them parents. ‘No’ is often the kindest thing you can say to your child.
But back to me, in Sunday School, thinking, ‘I recently used these exact props – what did I use for a snake last time?’, another thought struck me.
Sometimes, we’re given good gifts we don’t want. They don’t taste like a freshly baked bread roll or some beer-battered haddock. But they’re given to us by God for our good. I know not everything is called a gift, so I don’t want to stretch this out too far. But I’ve been given trials, which I did not ask, seek or knock for. They don’t seem good to me. But is my Heavenly Father a better parent than I am? Yes, a thousand times yes.
I give my children things they don’t want: discipline, healthy food, lessons in tidying up after themselves. This is for their good. They might not trust me, but they should!
How much more should I trust my Heavenly Father? He has given me a chronic illness that I didn’t want. I still don’t want it. But even now I can see that he is using it to teach me to depend more on him, which is such a good thing. I can give thanks to him, not just for the medicine and the doctors, but even for giving me this trial.
So next time your child doesn’t want what you’ve given him or her (which happens rather frequently for me, anyone else?), may it remind you to give thanks for what God has given you that you neither sought or asked for.
Mum in Zone One 