It was so beautiful – full of possibilities. His imagination had no bounds where the pellet gun was concerned. He’d been shot in the back with one not long ago; it didn’t really hurt, but it was fun playing with those pellet guns. He wondered how many birds he could shoot with one. And if his siblings annoyed him too much, he could always threaten to shoot them. It wouldn’t really hurt them after all.

But his mother had said "No". His little heart broke; he wanted that gun so badly. He even threw a fit in the middle of the store hoping beyond hope that his mother would give in.

She didn’t.

But he couldn’t forget about that pellet gun, and soon opportunity gave him another chance.

After staying with his grandparents for the weekend, he came up with a plan. As his grandfather drove him home he asked, "Pa, could we stop at the store and buy me something?"

Being a grandparent, and not knowing what he was about to purchase, his grandfather assented. Billy went right to the gun. It was still there, sitting alone on a shelf. And, as grandparents will be grandparents, Billy ended up with the gun. However, he had not planned on how to get the gun past his mother. She was bound to see it; so, he hid it underneath his oversized sweatshirt. It was the perfect plan.

However, he didn’t count on Pa telling his mom about the gun.

It was a terrible scene. Yes, he had gotten the gun, but now he was in trouble because he knew he wasn’t allowed to have such a thing as a pellet gun. What had begun as a wonderful plan ended up landing Billy in a world of trouble. He was punished severely: no TV - no computer - no internet of any kind … nothing. And even worse, the gun went back to the store for a refund, so he didn’t have a gun either.

There are so many times we want something so badly and we pray and pray for it. We beg for it. But God is omniscient. He sees what we can’t see. While people think He doesn’t answer their prayers, He always does; sometimes we just don’t want to accept His answer. When He says ‘No’, the devil whispers to us and we connive another way to get what we want. We think we can fool God, even though He knows what is best for us. Then we get into trouble and we end up in worse conditions than ever before. And then what? We cry out to God to deliver us from a situation we caused because we didn’t listen to Him in the first place.

We must stop thinking wholly for ourselves but ask God what we should do, even if it’s only buying a pellet gun.