I’ve been learning about expectations lately. Expectations I put on myself, on others, on God… Everyone has them, yet we never quite measure up. My church is going through the Sermon on the Mount series and the word perfect came up last week.
Perfect.
What is that? Because for some reason, I believe somewhere that I can reach perfection, since that is precisely what I have been expecting of myself. However, I have to remind myself that I also believe in a Father who IS perfect. Yet, He does not ask for perfection from us.
In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says,
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
I had no idea that He didn’t actually mean to be perfect. Our Pastor pointed out that the Greek translation for the word perfect is “one” or “whole.” This changed EVERYTHING for me. Jesus wants us to be whole with Him, one with Him. Day by day this has been sitting with me in some of the deepest parts of my soul. I don’t want to be perfect. I want to be more like Jesus, becoming whole with him.
He’s been moving mountains in my life lately. I am mentally and emotionally present. He’s making me stronger, with a softer and softer heart every day. I’ve had more energy and capacity than ever. I’m really giving it my all. And it’s paying off.
As our launch in August gets closer and closer, I am beginning to realize that I have expectations for this adventure, but God is planning SO much more than what I expect and am planning for. I cannot wait for God to reveal more and more of what He has planned for our team. We are growing as close as we can while getting to know each other via technology. My teammates are incredible people, inside and out, and they are some of the most encouraging and God-fearing people I have ever met. I can’t wait to meet them in June (training camp)!!
While I am still getting the blog thing down, I wanted to include this next section in every blog from now on:
I am going to have a section called “Praises for Preschoolers” that tell about the things I am praising God for. I have been teaching in the Preschool class at my church for over a year now and I absolutely adore them. Every week I am astounded because many of the kids pray out loud and thank Jesus for the simplest things in their life, I want to be reminded of this kind of prayer while on the field. These kids have saved my life and are the reason I have such a soft heart now. They love Jesus with the most authentic child-like faith I have ever experienced. Saying good-bye to them for an entire year is going to be one of the hardest things I’ll have ever done. So without further or due…
“Praises for Preschoolers”
My car broke down a few weeks ago and is gone for good now because the car just wasn’t worth the repairs. I reached out to my community for help and it wasn’t long before someone met this need. A woman contacted me and told me she had an extra car, and she had actually been praying to know what she was supposed to do with it! Then she saw my need and didn’t hesitate. I now have a reliable and upgrade of a car for the next few months.
I went to my doctor last week to get my vaccinations and medications for the race and ended up paying $0 for my vaccines and only $15 for the malaria pills!! For those of you who don’t know, these can cost upwards of $1000 all together and I only had to dish out $15!! Thank you to my incredible mom for dishing out an arm and a leg for our health insurance every month!! I am so grateful.
God is faithful.
ALL the praise – to you Abba.
