Most of us don’t think about the word please much in our daily interactions with colleagues, family, or friends. But Randy Roche, SJ, took some time to reflect on the effect that please can have in our relationships with each other and with God. He concludes:
In prayer, we certainly are pleasing to God when our attitude, in asking or conveying our desires, includes appreciation for God’s absolute freedom to love us in the manner that God chooses. We do not like to receive implicit demands from anyone, as it appears to us as demeaning. We are far more responsive to others when our freedom is properly valued. God loves us completely, but we are incapable of receiving what we really need if we let ourselves imagine that God is somehow obligated to respond as we desire. Trust is based on our belief that God loves us and will do what is best for us, just as we expect others whom we trust to act out of love in whatever they say or do in answer to our appeals.
In relationships, “please” epitomizes one of our most beautiful characteristics.
