Be Careful What You Pray For!

The mother of James and John, two of the chief apostles to the Lord, one time approached the Savior with a request.

“What wilt thou?” The Savior asked.

“Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.” she responded.

“Ye know not what ye ask,” Jesus explained and then went on to prophesy of that the brothers would experience some of the same things he did, but that it was not his decisions as to who would sit on his right side and on his left. Only the Father could determine that. (See Matthew 20:20-23)

Matthew doesn’t record for us the mother’s response, was she disappointed, sad, upset that her request had not been granted, or did she understand what a mistake she had made in asking? You see, elsewhere in the scriptures we learn that the righteous will be on the right hand of God and the wicked will be on the left. As we are taught in the book of Alma, “For the names of the righteous shall be written in the book of life, and unto them will I grant an inheritance at my right hand” (Alma 5:58. See also, Mosiah 26:23).

So what James and John’s mother asked for is that one of her sons be among the righteous and one be among the damned. As Jesus said, she didn’t know what she was asking!

This story makes me wonder how many of my requests are like this? How many times have I prayed for something that actually would not be good for me? It makes me stop and ponder, but most of all it increases my trust in my Savior. He died to save me. Surely now he is also going to lead and guide me into all righteousness–even if I am asking for something else.