"If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"
- from Evan Almighty =)
I watched this a few weekends ago at Jono's and it really affected me... maybe more so at the time, but it's something I need to keep in mind. Whenever I pray for something and it doesn't happen right away or possibly never at all, my rationale has always been that God has something better in store for me, or he's preventing me from getting what I think I want for my own good, whether it's for personal growth or just to help me avoid a particularly not-so-great event later on. Maybe that's true, but I think I forget sometimes that I need to be proactive as well. I need to put forth effort in order to get closer to what I believe is right for myself, my family, or whatever it is that I am praying for. I can't just sit back and hope for things to simply... happen on their own (although, this has occurred quite often for events that were completely out of my hands - God is so good). But there are always opportunities that God provides me to improve, to grow, to reach out to someone and I need to remember to take advantage of them - it's possible that it might bring me one step closer to what I've been praying for.
And Happy Independence Day!
About Me
- ★
- "I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself."