We have been commanded by our Father in Heaven to “…ask, and ye shall receive…” to make all our wants and wishes known to Him. (John 16:24) Still, there is a need for judgment and for wisdom in how we pray and what we pray for. May I illustrate?

Not long ago, I was traveling back from Wyoming, when my cell phone rang. I answered it, and it was my wife wondering where I was. As we talked, I could hear one of my children in the background, one of the younger ones:

“I wanna talk to Daddy. I wanna talk to Daddy.”

Finally my wife said, “Shaina wants to talk to you.”

“Guess what, Daddy,” she said when she came on the phone.

“What.”

“I lost a tooth.”

“You did!”

“Yup.”

“You mean you got a hole in your face now.”

“Yup.”

Now, in order to understand this next part of the conversation, you have to understand that the tooth fairy has been a frequent mysterious visitor to our home through the years.

I said to her, “So, how much do you want the tooth fairy to give you for that tooth?”

She thought for a second, and then very matter-of-factly she announced, “Fifty dollars!”

“Fifty dollars!” I said – a little shocked.

“Yup,” she said flatly, as if to say. “I’ve made up my mind, Dad, and this is not negotiable.”

After losing her tooth that afternoon at the fair, Shaina had announced to her mother the following:

“Mommy, I’m all grown up now. I’m going to kindergarten, I can ride a two-wheeler, and I lost a tooth. I’m big now!”

Well, I tell you that story to illustrate a point: Sometimes I wonder if we get a little big for our britches with our Father in Heaven – maybe just a little thoughtless in our prayers? I wonder if at times we don’t take the time to think very carefully about what we’re saying, or sometimes we act as though God works on the same premise as the tooth fairy or Santa Claus.

My dear friends, the most perfect kind of prayer is inspired prayer. It is the kind of prayer borne of sincere effort, which brings our mind and heart into union with our Father in Heaven, and brings us to ask for nothing more than what He already wants to give us.

Have a good day.