To be honest with God

J. Thomas Black

All through high school my dad and I quarreled. I thought he was a real "jerk," and he must have thought the same about me.

But one day I yearned very, very much to be free of the bad feelings. That desire was an inspiring prayer to God. One result was that I became aware of a crucial failing of mine: I had not been honest with God. Maybe Dad was not the most gracious human on earth (and maybe I wasn't, either!). But to God, Dad was really His precious child. To be spiritually honest with God, I needed to think about Dad (and myself, too) as His offspring.

For a couple of weeks I carefully watched my thoughts about Dad. If some critical or angry suggestion came along, I replaced it with clear and pure truth. For instance, if a thought came that he was stingy and stupid because he wouldn't let me use warm water to wash my car when the weather was cold, I stopped whatever I was doing and declared that as God's child he really was gracious and wise.

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