Does God care what color shirt I wear? I hear that question often. Usually it’s rhetorical… the person asking assumes that God could care less about what color shirt they’re wearing. God has more important things to do… run the universe for example, than worry about what color clothes I pick out.

And I suppose that, for the most part, they’re right. Not that God is “too busy” to care about the details of our lives, but that He really doesn’t care too much which color shirt we pick that morning. Usually.

But what if He did care? Would we notice?

My husband, Pete, made a great analogy about this. He’s pretty oblivious when it comes to picking out clothes for the day. He tends to grab the shirt that’s on top of the pile, the pants he had on the day before (if they aren’t dirty yet), and not give much consideration to color or style. Usually that works out just fine. But occasionally, the combination is enough to cause a double-take, and a groan from me. Wisely, Pete has made me his Final Authority on matters of clothing.

If he’s chosen a combination that really clashes, I try to intercept him before he heads out the door. Perhaps those brown pants will look better with a blue shirt, rather than the yellow one he’s got on. Perhaps a T-shirt just doesn’t look quite right with those dress pants. And are those sandals with that sport coat—worn with dress socks?

I’m not an expert, but I can usually tell when there’s a major fashion faux pas about to happen. If I have reservations, Pete will go and change his outfit. He accepts the fact that my opinion is probably closer to societal norms. And he changes because he loves me and wants to please me.

We who claim to love God would do well to consider His opinions. He really is an expert in all things. But even more significantly, we want to please Him. Shouldn’t we check to see if He cares about even the minor decisions in our lives?

And this brings me to my next point… how do we know which decisions are minor? Most people would agree that it’s important to pray about major decisions… who to marry, what to major in, where to live, etc. The problem is that life isn’t neatly divided into two boxes, one labeled “Big and Important” and one labeled “Small Stuff.” It’s a lot fuzzier than that.

So, you pray about what major to pursue in college. That’s smart—the One who created you might have some special understanding about that issue. OK, how about which classes to take? Might God like to have a say in that choice? Now say you’re in an English class, and you have to write a paper about values. Do you pray over the paper, asking God for wisdom and understanding? He knows a bit about values. He knows everything about everything.

What about smaller homework assignments? (Most of us already pray during exams!) Where do you draw the line between matters requiring prayer and matters that can be decided without God’s input? Is there truly anything we should decide on our own?

I would like to suggest that we subject everything to God’s authority. We don’t need to stop, drop, and pray. It’s easy to look in the closet and think, “Hmmm, green or gray today? What do you think, God?”

God may smile and let us go ahead and make the choice. Or, He may surprise you and say “Red!” because He knows that someone needs to spot you in a crowd this morning.

Try to live life as if God is your constant companion, looking over your shoulder, offering words of encouragement, guidance, and advice. After all, He really is, you know. He wants so much to be with us, enjoying our company as we hang out together with Him, that He died to make it possible.