Expectations

Children in Scotland have returned to school this past week, and with them go the wishes, hopes, plans and expectations of parents and family. We all want the very best for our own, and so we trust and pray that school will be used in a way that will help, improve, and prepare them for life in the real world of work in their future. A noble thought indeed.

What is it with our expectations of others? We place them on those we care about, mostly because we love them. In fact, we do it to try to make them just like us, or how we would have liked to have been. But hold on, we were not perfect at their age, and we certainly let our own parents and family down sometimes. So why should we expect our family to be like us, because that is not only unreasonable, it gives a false impression of what we were. If you are honest (always a dangerous thing) we were not as ‘good’ as we like to make out, were we?

It isn’t only in our family circles that we place expectations on others, it has crept into our church life too. We can become less interested in new believers’ faith life and growth, and more interested in making clones. Sadly we do have expectations, and that is just not right. What does God expect of us? Certainly not that we turn out like someone else. We need to be more like Him, and that cannot happen overnight, but with His grace, we must try to be more Christlike while we live our short mortal lives on a daily basis, whether at home or in the church.

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. Psalm 62:5

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 NKJV

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12 KJV