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This
deceptively simple question — What do you
want? — perplexes many.

Today I want
to examine why it can be so difficult to know what
we want. The answer is simple: we’ve been
conditioned to repress our wants. We learned
not to ask for what we want.

As children we
were told that big kids don’t ask for what they
want. We were told that good boys and good girls
don’t ask for whatever it was they desire — some
candy, a toy, attention, or even affection. We
wanted to be big and we wanted to be good, so we
learned not to ask when we wanted.

As a
result of this training, many of us think that we
are better off when we have fewer needs or
demands of others. (I find this is especially true
of nice people.) We think that it is a mark
of maturity to not have wants and needs — and so,
we don’t.

After time, like an atrophied
muscle, we no longer remember that we in fact do
want things, and we have usually also forgotten how
to ask for what we do realize that we
need.

Ask a child what they want for their
birthday, and they can tell you. Tell an adult that
you’ve got God on the phone and that they can ask
for anything they desire and, well, they look at you
funny.

How about you?

Is it possible
for you to allow yourself to look into your heart
and figure out what it is that you really want?

• joy
• health.
• serenity.
• resplendence.
• a
  sense of humor.
• seeing God.
• loving
  God.
• following God.
• material stuff.

Final thought:

• What can you do about getting the
  things you want?