“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:9–11
Typically, we eat dinner right after an episode of Wild Kratts begins. The first few times this happened, our daughter reacted to our meal time as though she had been shot through the heart.
My response was to subscribe to Amazon Prime’s PBS KIDS database, a resource that pretty much grants me access any PBS KIDS show out there. Now when it’s dinner time, I know that I can get the episode our daughter’s about to miss.
This has led to a pretty standard refrain: “Dad, can you get…?”
Fill in the blank with “Odd Squad” or “The Cat in the Hat Knows All About That” or “Peg + Cat” or “Daniel Tiger” or, of course, “Wild Kratts.”
It’s always a treat when I pick our daughter up from daycare with a previously requested episode on my IPAD.
She seems me. We got through our “How was your day?” ritual.
Then I say it: “Guess what I’ve got.”
Today it was the Cat in the Hat space movie.
A week ago it was episodes of the Nickelodeon show Team Umizoomi.
It gives me delight to answer her request.
I thought today about how much more it must please God to do good things for His children and what inexpressibly good gifts He can and does grant us.
I want to be the kind of father who gives my daughter good gifts, and so I aspire to do more for my daughter than offer PBS cartoons (and to teach her there are much better gifts in the world than Team Umizoomi!).
I also want to be the kind of child who believes his Heavenly Father gives good gifts, and I aspire to be the kind of child who trusts his Father implicitly.
My prayers will not be start with “Dad, can I get…” though. They start “Dad, would you…”
“Would you let my wife and I better know your love in this difficult season?”
“Would you let us be your hands and feet to those in need in our community?”
“Would you save our daughter?”
These are requests worth making. We have a Father who can answer them.