Article November 11, 1985 ISSUE

Right the first time

BARBARA KOBLER ROSSITER

There it was! I had gone to buy a dress, and the first one I saw as I entered the store was the very style and color I had hoped to find. The size was right. The fit was perfect. Why did I let myself wander through the entire department, glancing at dozens of additional garments and trying on four or five of them, only to return, fatigued and jaded, to the original choice?

Perhaps finding the right thing immediately had seemed too easy—after all, time had been set aside to "shop." It may have been the temptation of greed—if perfection is available immediately, might not some personal effort unearth something even better? More likely, it illustrated one of the small but important ways in which we permit ourselves to be inconsistent with our best thoughts, our prayers, by failing to accept an answer to prayer when it comes!

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