I have a decision to make. Both options seem right. I'm stuck.

Being stuck between two reasonable options can feel like a failure of judgement. James treats it as the opposite — the asking is the qualifying move, and the promise attached to it includes a specific detail worth noticing: no scolding comes with the answer. Nobody who asked was ever told they should have known.

The conversation

The child: “Daddy God, I have a decision to make. Both options seem right. I'm stuck.”

God: “You're stuck because you're honest. People who know everything don't ask.”

The child: “What did James say?”

God: “'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God... and it shall be given him.'”

God: “'Upbraideth not.' I'll never say 'you should know this already.'”

The child: “But how does wisdom come? A voice? A sign?”

God: “Peace in one direction and unease in another. Often wise counsel.”

God: “James added: 'let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.'”

The child: “What if I still choose wrong?”

God: “A heart that asked Me first is a heart I can redirect.”

The child: “So the asking is the first step of wisdom?”

God: “It's the whole foundation. Asking puts you ahead of the one charging alone.”

The child: “Then I'm asking. I don't know what to do.”

God: “And I'll give it liberally.”

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James 1:5, KJV