Preferences

“Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster.” (Deuteronomy 30:15, Contemporary English Version) 

My granddaughter has a very strong preference. She prefers her food delivered directly from mom, not from a bottle. Hungry though she may be, she prefers to scream (sometimes her screams actually sound like “nooo!”) rather than fill her tummy with the mommy’s bottled sustenance. I use to try to placate her, walking the floor, jiggling her, making quiet breath sounds in an effort to calm her. But I’ve come to realize that, small as she is, she’s making a choice, choosing to stick to her “preference,” trying to hold out for what she wants. After a bit it dawned on me that this child will not starve; when she gets hungry enough she’ll eat (she eventually does). It is hard to listen to the screaming, but at my age, I understand the noise is temporary.

I wonder: is that how I appear to You when I stubbornly reject the “mode” through which You choose to bless me? When my preference doesn’t line-up with Your plan?

My granddaughter has an excuse, she’s too young to know better. I, on the other hand….

Father, help me to accept with joy* all the circumstances You allow. Help me embrace whatever mode You choose to use to present blessings. Help me to wholeheartedly trust Your merciful heart.

*”’Behold me! My name is Acceptance-with-Joy.’” Hinds Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard, Living Books, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,1975, p. 91.