Choir Notes

Unspoken Prayers
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4244

Very often what we want most may not be what is best for us in the long run. In fact, sometimes our greatest growth and happiness come when we don’t get what we want.

We’ve all experienced this. Because a young man did not achieve his dream of playing high school basketball, he turned to books and words and became a sensitive and prolific writer. Because a woman lost an election for public office, she turned to volunteer service that blessed countless lives. Because a job seeker did not get the job he thought he wanted most, a new, more promising career unfolded to him.

These examples, and many others like them, teach us that we don’t always get what we hope for—and that can be a good thing. Our desires, even our prayers, sometimes reveal a limited vision of what we can become. Often, if we’re patient, there’s a greater blessing in store for us. Even our trials and setbacks can be stepping-stones to greater growth.

The key, as this anonymous prayer teaches us, is to learn to be grateful for the blessings we didn’t ask for.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly 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.

1 Lloyd D. Newell 1. In Suzy Platt, ed., Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 277.