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“Daddy, can I have your pennies?” little Katie asked, already knowing the answer she
would hear.
“Yeah,” said her dad, who sat in his recliner, “they’re on my dresser in the tin.”
Katie got the tin, brought it back to the living room and poured out the pennies onto the
floor. She counted them and found enough to stuff them into penny rolls. A few days
later she asked, “Daddy, will you buy my pennies?”
And what did Daddy do? He bought her pennies! He gave her the larger coins, or even
dollars for ‘her’ pennies.
Katie waited a couple of weeks and then asked, “Daddy, can I have your pennies?’
And the cycle, or perhaps scam, began again.
And so it went, every few weeks, the same episode. Katie knew from the time she was
tiny that she sometimes controlled her daddy. That is, she had him wrapped around
her little finger. Though she is grown now, we still wiggle our pinkie finger, with the
other fingers folded down, when joking about Katie getting her daddy to do something.
It was an innocent kind of manipulation that her Daddy, Ed, submitted to joyfully.
“Daddy, will you buy me this? Daddy, will you do this for me?” Not by choice, Ed had
waited ten years for her birth. He loves her and would do anything he could for Katie,
giving her anything within reason.
Our Father loves us even more than that. He wants to bless us generously. However
we cannot control or manipulate Him. God is a giver of good gifts, though not at our
command. He does tell us to ask, but He knows what is best for us and His answers
are dispensed with wisdom.
Some may not want to surrender control of their lives, placing that power in God’s
hands, because they aren’t able to trust Him. Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, chose
not to depend on God to take care of their needs, their welfare. Wanting to have
control of their own destiny, they were unwilling to completely relinquish their hearts,
and therefore their wallets, to God, and it cost them their very lives . (Acts Chapter 5).
God has given precious promises to show us we are able to wholly trust our Father and
can relinquish the authority and control of our lives to Him. He is more than able and
willing to take that control and responsibility and grant out requests, sifted through His
wisdom and love.
If we can truly understand that He loves us so much He was willing to lay down His life
for us, then we can believe in Him, and trust Him to know what is best. With that
knowledge in our hearts we can give Him complete control of everything, holding back
nothing.
Katie knew that she didn’t really control her daddy, she was never a demanding child.
But she knew she could ask Him anything because he loved her and wanted what was
best for her. And her Daddy wanted to grant her requests, as long as it was in her best
interest. She knew something that we, as Christians should all know, she was “the
apple of her Daddy’s eye,” just as we are to our Heavenly Father.
“For I know the plans I have for you and not to harm you,” declares the Lord, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11 NIV
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! Matt. 7:11
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