Does God Give Stones or Bread?

The Savior taught his disciples the following parable about answers to prayer:

"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:11-13)

Our loving Heavenly Father will never give us stones or serpents or scorpions. He promises to give us only bread and fish and eggs. He does not hurt us. He only nourishes us.

But sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Sometimes we let what Michael Wilcox calls the "expected good" get in the way of our receiving and appreciating the "given good". We ask for nice, soft, fluffy, easy-to-chew white bread, and God gives us 12-grain whole wheat gluten free bread. We see the dark, hard, crusty, gritty bread and we think it is a stone. And we wonder why God didn't answer our prayer. We wonder why he doesn't love us. We wonder if he is even listening to us, or if he is even there. We completely miss the fact that he gave us what we needed because we did not get what we expected.

God's timing

Sometimes we are disappointed because God gives us gifts on his time schedule instead of on ours. The apostles were rowing across the Sea of Galilee in a terrible storm that threatened to sink them. They wanted to be rescued when the storm first started to dash the waves against their boat during the first watch of the night, which was around six o'clock. But the Savior did not walk across the storm-tossed water and still the storm until the fourth watch, sometime after three in the morning. Why did he not come sooner?

The Israelites had just escaped the Egyptians and had crossed the desert to the shores of the Red Sea. They needed a way to escape Pharaoh and the oncoming Egyptian army. They would have loved for God to send down lightening from heaven to destroy the army, or strike the descending army with blindness so that they could not find them. Or if nothing else, it would have been much less stressful if God had just already opened up the path on dry ground through the Red Sea when they arrived on the shore. But God waited until the Egyptians were practically on top of them before he inspired Moses to raise his staff and command the waters to part. Why did God not provide their escape sooner?

Why does God not always give us yummy, soft white bread? Why does he not still the storm at the sign of the first wave? Why does he not part the Red Sea before we get to the shore? "For mine own purpose have I [done] these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me" (Moses 1:31). Heavenly Father knows what we need and when we need it to produce the most good for us and to strengthen us in the best possible way. He does not give stones, he only gives bread.

Perfect season

My football coach in high school was mean and hateful. When it came to conditioning and training, he was merciless. During pre-season workouts, in the blazing heat of the summer day, he made us run and lift weights and skip rope until we dropped from exhaustion. We ran bleachers until our legs gave out, and then he topped off our workout with a dozen wind-sprints. He was a horrible man, and he hated us. But three months later we finished the season with a perfect record. We raised him on our shoulders and doused him with ice water for being the best coach in the world.

"For mine own purpose have I [done] these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me." God does not give stones or serpents or scorpions. He gives only bread and fish and eggs. The "given good" may not be the "expected good", but it is still good. In fact, what we get is always better than what we ask for. The apostles wanted a calm passage across the lake; what they got was the opportunity to see God walking on the water. The Israelites wanted a peaceful walk through the desert; what they got was a miracle never to be forgotten. I wanted a relaxing summer at the beach; what I got was a perfect season. What we want is fluffy white bread that pleases the pallet and goes down easy; what we often get is bread full of nutrients and healthy fiber that sustains us through tough, challenging times. What we want is a solution; what we get is an opportunity to strengthen our faith and prove ourselves valiant in the face of storms and barriers and afflictions. We want easy, and what we get is perfection.

When you think God is giving you a stone, look again.