I was reading in a religious magazine and something hit me like a brick that should have been so obvious. You know in the Lord’s Prayer, when it says “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), it didn’t say “Give us a lifetime of daily bread.” It basically said, “Give me one day at a time what I need.” I hear everywhere from self-help to AA to new age to “Take life one day at a time, ” and “Live in the now.” But it may have started with this phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. Or perhaps earlier with the people of Moses who lived on manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16). As a refresher, the people of Moses were without food in the wilderness. So, God provided a substance called manna which met their nutritional needs. Manna rained daily from the skies except for the Sabbath. Any leftover or hoarded manna went bad except for the day before the Sabbath when they could gather more to subsist on the Sabbath day. (No wonder one of my kids hates leftovers.) God provided in increments, in portions. God only asks the same of us.
From this same religious article “Recognizing God’s Hand in our Daily Blessings,” D. Todd Christofferson said: “Asking God for our daily bread rather than our weekly, monthly, or yearly bread is also a way for us to focus on the smaller, more manageable bits of a problem. To deal with something big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites. Sometimes all we can handle is one day—or even just part of one day—at a time.” I’ve heard it also said “the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.” I don’t relish the thought of eating an elephant, so my elephant is made of solid chocolate. :) By small and simple things, God can accomplish great things through us (Alma 37:6). But to be content with small and simple things, to only have what we need for that day, is the aim of spiritual folk like you and me.
I’d love to say, “God, please give me what I need for this moment, and nothing more.” When I typed this last sentence, I mistyped “way” for “what.” “God, please give me way I need for this moment…” Maybe, like a GPS, all I need is a way or direction for the moment to keep me on the path of righteousness. If God gave all the directions at once to our next stop or for our entire lives, I know I’d forget them and I’d get lost. Perhaps God is merciful after all in giving us what we can handle and use at the time, just like manna. “Give us this day our daily bread.” My needs and problems are met on a daily basis. I'm just beginning to see God's wisdom...
