Ask, Seek, Knock

My siblings like to say I’m spoiled. I don’t blame them. Not that I really am. There’re eight of us and only two parents to go around.

So, first off, I love junk food. Sadly, if it’s bad for me I love it. Especially barbecue potato chips. And Dad loves them, too. He wouldn’t share a solitary crumb if you got down on your knees and begged. At least that’s what I used to think.

Everybody knows Matthew 7, right? Ask, seek, knock. Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth…or what man is there of you whom if his son (or daughter) ask bread (or a chip) will give him a stone?

While I was reading that, I was hungry – yes, I know, I’m verily easily distracted. So as soon as I finished the chapter I went to the kitchen and Dad was sitting in the living room, eating chips. I decided to try out the whole bread and stone thing. So I asked him for some chips. And he actually gave me some.

Now I know that the reason he never offered was so that we – me and my sibs – would learn to ask. No matter what the answer, we have to be comfortable with asking for anything. If we could do it with Dad, we could do it with God (if ye then being evil know how to give gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things unto them that ask; Matt 7:11).

I’ll ask Dad for anything and if it’s something he can hand to me at that moment I generally get it. That’s probably why the sibs say I’m spoiled. They haven’t grasped that lesson yet.

Naturally I get my share of no’s. I always end up asking again though. As my personal favorite bible verse says: to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).