Meaningful Chatter

Here’s the sound of the chaos outside the concession stand on our outing today…
(4 children, and 1 very tired mommy)

I don’t want to leave!          But why, mommy?          What are you doing mommy?          Why do we have to leave?          He’s hitting me!          He took my Popsicle!          AAAAHHHHHH!          Why is she crying?          What are you doing mommy?          No! NO! NOOOO!          Can I have a different colored Popsicle?          Why do we need money for Popsicle?          No fair his Popsicle is bigger!          PLEASE can I have the other Popsicle?          My Popsicle fell on the ground!          I want a Popsicle like hers!          Why do we have to go?

This all culminated in Zoe’s Popsicle being thrown on the ground and a true 2 year old fit ensuing.  I wanted to lay down on the ground with her and just let the 4 of them finish me off.  I didn’t.  I managed to get them all a Popsicle and home with out losing my already fraying mind.  But as I was driving home, I was in deep thought about my relationship with my kids, (fuming really – ) and thinking how sometimes their inescapable chatter frazzles my mind.

I thought to myself “I wonder if God ever gets tired of listening to my inescapable chatter?”  I know there are times that I pray for so many things, I  have a laundry list of prayers taped to my kitchen window that I mull over while I scrub the pots and pans.  I pray for the same things over and over, like a broken record.  Like my kids constant “Why?” , I have the same constant whine to God.  I had a flashback to the Bruce Almighty film, where he answers yes to all the prayers that come in the emails… I bet God has thought about it…

Then, this evening, as I sat resting in the quiet.  A verse clicked into place in my mind.

James 4 – Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong.

So, in a fit of *brilliance* (haha) I took the prayer list from my window and I asked myself what the motives were for each of them.  Was there a good reason for the prayer on my list or was it just a different flavor of Popsicle?

You see, God knows our motives… and that scares me a lot.  (Sometime *I* don’t even know my motives!) But God does.  He sees right through our chaotic chatter and gives us what we need.  And often denies us the things we don’t need.  And just like my two year old, we often times throw a fit, and scream, or whine, or ask 14 more times for the same thing.  But until our motives change, the answer from God won’t either.

My new list is in the window, revised, with a clear motive for each one.  Now whether that motive is good enough, I’ll let God decide, but I guess that’s another post 🙂