Before You Ask For What You Want...

Toward the beginning of this month, I found a Facebook post that said "Before you ask God for what you want, first thank God for what you have!" When I shared that post, I noted, "The second half of this post is not where I thought it was going. I thought it was going to say 'Before you ask God for what you want, ask God what He wants.'" Both of those thoughts are at least somewhat blogworthy, so I'd like to write a bit about each of them.

The first one is a classic lesson about gratitude. Of course, we can always think of things we want and don't have, but it's often harder to notice the blessings we already have. Just by the fact that you're reading this blog post, I know that you have great blessings that others would envy. Firstly, reading this blog post proves that you can read (or that you have a good friend or computer program to read to you). Accessing this blog post at all means that you have access to the internet. And having access to the internet implies that you also have access to electricity. A tragically high number of people have to live without those three blessings. Yet, we often take those blessings for granted. We should try to be mindful of the many blessings we have, especially before we ask for new ones.

The second "quote" is a lesson on wisdom and acceptance. Of course, we want things. We will always want things we don't have yet, no matter how thankful we are for for the blessings we have. Yet, the blessings we want may not always be what's best for us. God seems to prefer to give people what they need, even if it's not something we particularly want. We should try to learn to trust God and His wisdom and timing and put His wants before our own.

It's only natural to want and to ask for blessings. In fact, the scriptures even encourage us to ask for what we want. But before we do, there are a few things we should consider, including God's will and the blessings we already have. That wisdom and gratitude will serve us well in life, and it will help us be content with what we have while we wait, pray, and work for the blessings we want.