While I’m working on all-things-wedding this week, I’m thrilled to have a dear friend, Karen Luciano, as a guest blogger this week. Karen is married to Phil. She has three kids–teen to young adult. One thing I love and appreciate about Karen is when God nudges her towards an adventure with Him she always answers, “Why not!” I am continually inspired by her eagerness to follow God and obedience in doing so.

Lately, I have been thinking about high school dances.  I have a son who is a senior in high school and homecoming is just around the corner.  With girls, there is a lot of buzz and talk about flowers, dresses, and shoes but I started thinking about the boys:  Not only do they have to muster the courage to ask a girl to attend a dance but they now seem to have the added pressure of HOW they are going to ask their potential date.  There is a lot of pressure for boys to be creative with “the ask.”

I started thinking about why this newly added pressure became a phenomenon that is now so prevalent. A million years ago when I was in high school, a boy might have passed a note to another friend who handed you the note that asked you to the dance or if the guy was really brave, he might have waited by your locker to (I know this is shocking) ask you IN PERSON. No texting, Facebook or Instagram back in those ancient times.  To me, this new “ask” is something that has morphed into ridiculousness in our society.  It seems that it is no longer about relationship and 2 kids going to a dance. It has now become “how will this look on social media”.  I need to impress everyone with “my ask.”

If you think about it, it seems that high school homecoming dances and proms are now becoming precursors for the bigger life events: engagements and weddings with the all the expense and the “asks” becoming bigger and in some cases more absurd. Why isn’t it about relationship any longer? Without a long dissertation of the pitfalls of social media, I think it boils down to expectations becoming about the “thing” or, in this case, the ask, and not the person(s).

 

This made me reflect on how we ask God for things.  He doesn’t expect a big creative poster or banner or some outrageous idea from Pinterest – He simply just wants us to ask.  When we step out in obedience and ask God for help, He will come through in His time and His way. His way is often better than we ever could have imagined.

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I have been studying the Book of Esther and there is certainly a lot of fanfare and dances in that chapter and not one time did I see any fancy “asks”.  Mordecai asked Esther to step up and she did.  Mordecai didn’t have a banner waving it at Esther nor did he have one of the Eunuchs spell out “Save your People” in the sand.  He simply asked.

What are you asking for?  Are you asking in simple obedience or are you hiding behind the splendor of your own vanity, worrying about how your “ask” looks to our Father?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7)”

“And I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).

Both of these verses remind me to ask simply – no Pinterest required.

 

Karen Luciano

9/16/15

Brenda Garrison is an author and speaker who empowers women with the confidence to live their calling. Brenda is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Ministry Leadership with a Concentration in Women’s Ministry at Moody Bible Institute. She and her husband, Gene, are the parents of three young adult daughters and live near Metamora, IL.