I was standing in a line at Wal Mart with a young mother and her two children right ahead of me. In the lower part of the shopping cart sat a three year old boy, and in the upper part sat his younger sister. The mostly unintelligible words from the three year old boy flowed incessantly, except, interjected regularly, maybe every 20 or 30 seconds, was a clear “Right Mama?” The Mama would always patiently answer “Right” and offer some type of answer in response to his barrage of young syllables. I asked the young Mama how many times in a day did she hear that question. She said many times, and, that no other answer such as “yes” or “ok” would suffice, rather, he had to hear “right.” It seemed this little boy was constantly making observations and offering his thoughts and opinions and solutions, but in it all, he would constantly check with Mama to see if he was on track with the “right” line of thinking.
The Bible says that if we will acknowledge God in all our ways he will direct our path (Proverbs 3:6). With this we need to develop our walk with God so that praying should be our first resource instead of our last resort. We naturally go about trying to work things out and when we fail and have exhausted all avenues, we finally start calling on God to help us. It is sort of the old “when all else fails, read the directions” syndrome. If we would get the directions right up front, it would not be trial and error. A successful leader surrounds himself or herself with people who can give good, sound advice. What a privilege to be able to walk with and surround ourselves with the highest wisdom of the universe. The Bible says Jesus is made unto us wisdom and right standing with God and purity and complete deliverance in every way (1 Corinthians 1:30). In him we have it all, and for us to not draw on that complete provision in daily life could be called sheer stupidity. His help is just an acknowledgment away.
Rather than living in the habit of him being our last resort, would it not be much better to be living in the habit with him being our first resource? He will be happy with our companionship and constant communication, and as a child, of us laying our case out there and listening for his response. He will patiently hear our rambling syllables with much understanding and offer a response of guidance and confirmation. Throughout his word he tells us, “Talk to me child, I’m listening.” “Right Mama?”
Psalms 4:3; 10:17; Luke 11:9-13; Romans 10: 9-13
