Expectations

Expectations……  How do you fit people’s expectations of you?  You know the people that think you should do this, be here, go there, act a certain way, and don’t do this or that?  I have had people my entire life tell me how they feel I should be.  Being a pastor’s wife for several years, an associate and now a senior pastor, I have had several people hold me to their expectations of what that looks like to them.  It took me years to figure out exactly who I was after trying for so long to please all those people.  Funny thing is, no matter how hard I tried, I STILL couldn't make them happy.  Trust me I really did try.  But I found the harder I tried the further and further away I got from the true me who was inside begging to come out.  I was struggling so hard that I was actually fighting with myself just so I could fit the mold of what everyone around me seemed to think that I should.  Well see I didn’t fit and nothing I could do was going to make that any different.  See I was created to fit GOD’S mold and what HE wanted me to be.  God took me through a year of showing me, up close and personal, that He created me for a purpose.  He wanted me to be exactly the way He created me.  Not something someone else wanted me to be.  He wanted me to be more concerned about who and how He wanted me to be than what everyone around me thought I should be.  In that year God really took me through some pretty emotional stuff and self-seeking times.  I spent a lot of time literally on my knees bawling before God, pleading for guidance and direction.  You know what?  Through all of it, I learned to LOVE the skin I was in and who God created me to be.  I began to see myself as GOD sees me.  I never thought I would find such freedom in that.  The complete and total joy in knowing that God made me exactly the way He wanted me to be.  I’m not perfect, I know this.  I’m trying daily to live as God would have me to live.  I make mistakes and trust that when I do, God will be faithful and show me. 

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” ~ 1 Samuel 16:7 

My challenge to you this week would be this…. Take a look at yourself.  Are you holding others to expectations of how YOU feel they should act or be?  Do you think so and so would be a better Christian if they just did something different?  I also have to ask if you hold yourself to those same expectations.  Maybe you think a Christian looks a certain way and you are trying with everything in you to fit in that mold you created.  Take a step back.  Let God show you what being His child really looks like.  What you look like to Him.  How others look to Him.  See yourself and others through His eyes.  Give God the chance to show you what kind of freedom He can give you.