Since I was old enough to remember, I have played the “What If” game with my dad. Here is how the game goes: If you were in this situation, how would you handle it?  What if your car was on fire, what would you do? What if your mom and I weren’t at home and someone tried to break in, what would you do?  What if you found a bag of money and drugs on the road, what would you do?

This always led to lively conversations and sometimes heated arguments as I, or one of my brothers, would pick a not-so moral path just to wind everyone up. As we got older, we realized that dad made the questions harder, and there was almost never a good answer – just the better of two bads.

As kids do though, we found the loophole to the game. We would eventually say, “I would just have to pray about it. No way that is the wrong answer.  I win.”  However, the other day when we were playing a game of Scenario of Doom, one of us said “I would have to pray about it.”  He replied that that was mostly the wrong answer to the scenario.  He then explained that the only right answer to the dilemma was that we need to figure out what we should pray for.  We have to ask the right, or righteous, question to get His answer.

So how does this apply to our lives?  Every day we are faced with crisis, frustration, difficult or confusing emotions, difficult decisions, etcetera.  How we move through these issues is ultimately what makes us Christians. Some of you may disagree with me, and that is fine.  But I believe that God is more concerned with how we deal with the tough things in our life than He is with whether we have tough things in our life. So when you bump into your scenarios of doom, of course the answer is to pray, but what do you genuinely ask for?

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says we should pray like this “Our father which are in heaven holly is your name. Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven . . .” (Matthew 6:9-10).  So first, we give thanks and honor for who He is, and then we seek His Kingdom and His will. What is the will and kingdom of God?  The will of God is that we all have a personal relationship with Him. Ultimately everything is moving toward us returning to the Garden of Eden and a relationship with Him. Our role in the Kingdom of God is to live so that others can see Christ in us (1 Peter 2:21).  So now, when I run into a dilemma, I try to pray God, “How do I show you in the situation that I am in?  How can I be a good example of who you are?”

For many of you that read our blogs, I personally know of your struggles. Some of you are coping with getting older and death.  Some of you struggle with how to take care of sick or aging spouses, parents, or kids.  Some of you struggle with providing for kids or grandkids.  Know that God sees this, and every time you show His love and who He is to those around you, He is pleased. So rather than focusing on being a perfect spouse, parent, or child, focus on showing who God is and how much He loves and wants a relationship with us.

If there is any way that we at Sanctuary Family Farms can help you show God’s love to others, please let us know.

– Written by Jeremiah

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