The "I Want Crew"

But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15 NIV) The Bug and the Pea are high maintenance. “Mom! I want…” “Dad! I want…” constantly. Whether it’s a glass of water (“you can get one yourself”) or some ice-cream (“not until after dinner”) or a trip to the roller rink (“weren’t we just there last week?”), it’s always something. Occasionally they’ll throw in a please or a thank you, but most of the time they are thinking only of themselves and their wants. (The Husband calls them the “I Want Crew” I want, I want, I want, I want.) I was thinking about prayer this morning, and how much I fit into the “I Want Crew” when it comes to speaking with my heavenly Father. I was taught to follow the acronym ACTS when I pray. A: Adoration and praise; C: Confession of sins; T: Thanksgiving for blessings; S: Supplication – requests for me and petition on behalf of others. However, I tend to skid past ACT and only concentrate on the requests. It’s pretty shocking that I can actually get to the supplication part after about 3 sentences. But I am all about The I Want factor. In fact, I have a virtual laundry list of wants that I repeat day after day after day. I imagine God gets pretty bored with our one-way conversations. I suppose it’s more of a monologue, really. “Oh Lord, I want, I want, I want…” Of course I phrase it much more politely. “Dear heavenly Father, I lift up to you…yada, yada, yada…and I ask that you…yada, yada, yada…” And forget about listening. I rush to give God my “I Wants” for the day and then I’m off tending to the busy-ness of life. I cut God off from our conversation, and rarely wait for a response. I rarely wait in the quiet for His still, small voice. What would happen if I spent just as much of my prayer time praising God for His omniscient, omnipresent, all-knowing, wonderful self? And if I spent a great deal of time confessing specifically what I had done that was counter to what God would have me do, and truly promising to repent? What if I sincerely counted the blessings, the multitude of answered prayers that God has showered upon me and my family? What if I was so in tune to God that my supplications were according to His will: To bring Him glory and to love others into His kingdom? After all, we were created to serve the LORD, and not the other way around. I need to begin serving Him instead of expecting Him to serve me. Now that is what I truly want.