Day 12 From Repurposed Find to Life Found

Day 12

One of the biggest challenges we face in resetting our lives is letting go of expectations. Interestingly, when we look up the definition of expectation it means to have a belief about how successful or good someone or something should be. So here’s the visual, you have a child and you’ve already got expectations for their life. You get married, you have expectations of exactly how it should be. You are born into your family and you have expectations of exactly how family should respond to situations. So how many of you have heard this quote, “A good working definition of expectation is planned disappointment.” Wow. That’s good isn’t it? It really makes you think…and yet if we’re honest, it’s what we do all the time. 

Now, for those of you who are anything like me (deeply flawed, ha!), if you’re any kind of “doer” this is especially challenging for us. We plan everything. We have to do lists, we have schedules, we have goals. If we’re not careful, we begin placing so much on those to do’s that people become a non factor. Did it ever occur to us that they might have their own idea of how things should go too? And what happens when our expectations aren’t met? Disappointment. I’m wondering if we can’t learn to approach things differently? You see friends, when we let go of all the planning in our minds, all the planning on paper, all the planning of other people’s lives— we get to just be present. We learn to enjoy being present. We learn to embrace the full experience of it all. We get to learn about ourselves and others. Situations present and they become opportunities for learning instead of heartfelt discouragement. 

Friends when we are willing to let go of expectations, we also get to release worry. There is no longer this striving for things to be just so. We get to fully watch it unfold like a beautiful flower when its time to bloom. We wouldn’t open a rose before it’s time, let’s not tell life how to do it’s job either. Believe in the plan your Father has for you. He tells us in scripture it’s a plan to proser us not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future. Let’s leave the planning to Him as we wait in hopeful expectancy. That’s one thing we can count on, His love for us. 

In your quiet time today, consider all the expectations you place on situations. For me, it was helpful to take each thing in my life I do this with—son, job, family, etc. and write out all the false expectations I’ve allowed myself to conjure up. Then release each one prayerfully, knowing God’s got it and we don’t have to. Capture what it feels to truly be living in the present. Every sound, every scent, every smile. 

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,”

declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you

and not to harm you, plans to give you hope 

and a future."