Be Careful What You Pray For…

Dear Readers: Today is Thanksgiving. I hope you won’t mind if I take the day off to be with my daughter, grandchildren and great-grands in Minneapolis - a family tradition. Granddaughter Abra Weber and husband, Chris, host the dinner. Everybody shows up. No excuses are accepted. Daughter Margo comes from Boston, grandson Adam from California, granddaughter Cricket from New York and “Gram” (that’s me) from Chicago. I left behind a Thanksgiving column that ran a few years back. Here it is with some minor alterations.

Dear Ann Landers: A few years ago, I attended a church service on Thanksgiving. It was unique and unforgettable. Instead of talking at length, the pastor took several cordless microphones and, with his assistants, went out among the members of his congregation and asked people what they had to be thankful for.

We heard the usual expressions of gratitude for jobs, health, peace, family, friends and so forth. When they approached me, I had no idea what I was going to say because life had dealt me several unexpected blows.

I shared how I had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years earlier and was thankful because it taught me to be more compassionate toward people who were in worse shape than I.

I was thankful for having survived a bitter divorce that I did not want because it taught me so much about myself and others. After the divorce, I experienced several days of being really hungry because I could not pay my bills and buy food, too. I was thankful for those lean days because they taught me a lot about foolish pride and what was really important.

As I handed the microphone back to the pastor, I mentioned that I was certain we gain the greatest wisdom when things in our lives seem to be at their worst. I was most thankful for the wisdom I had acquired through the pain I suffered. Lord knows I now feel wise beyond my years.

Ann, even though my first wife is gone, my second wife is such a blessing that I know she is a gift from God. I never dreamed that I would be lucky enough to have a woman as wonderful as she is.

Please print this poem. I don’t know who the author is, but the words express my feelings completely. - Thankful in Muskegon, Mich.

Dear Thankful: Here is the poem. It brought to mind an adage that has long been one of my favorites: Be careful what you pray for - you might get it.

I Asked God

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.

I was made weak, that I might learn to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for - but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.