In a shiur given by Rabbi Reisman he said a person he corresponded with told him that he wanted more time to spend with his family. He became sick and spent more time with his family. Lesson: watch what you pray for. This is why we ask that our requests be answered l'tova.
I just read two other examples of this in an article about Yitzi Hurwitz in Mishpacha. He is immobilized by ALS and his wife was interviewed and said, when they were dating, she had spoken about wanting to live in America as opposed to somewhere where they'd have to send the kids to school in another country. They ended up in California but she still had to drive a thousand miles a week to take her kids to and from school. The lesson, she said, "You really need to be specific when you ask G-d for things."
Even scarier is when she says, "The two things in my life that I wished for were not to have to worry so much about money, and that I'd have more time to spend with Yitzi because he was never home, he was working so hard. And now, I have a lot more time to spend with Yitzi, and thanks to a lot of good people, I worry very little about money. It's not exactly how I thought it would be ..."
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It's a little confusing, because the mitzva of tefilah is to daven for what one feels that one needs. How can fulfilling a mitzva lead to an unwanted, negative outcome?
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, the lesson is that when davening for anything, one should daven that it be fulfilled "in a guten oifen--in a positive manner".