My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.

Psalms 62:5 NKJV

Expectation– A strong belief that something will happen or be the case.

I apologize for not posting last Sunday. Last week, my sister’s dog died. It was sudden and unexpected. As expected, she was heartbroken. SoI went to see her. Again, sudden but I expected to go. While on the trip, I lost my copy of the anthology book I was a part of (which is out now). As with everything else, it was sudden and unexpected. I painted with watercolors this week and it went better than I expected. A kid even took the painting home.

Expectations can be tricky things. Each person has expectations or doesn’t have them for certain reasons. They can be put on to another person, place, thing, experience, or yourself. They can be an inspiring goal to reach, or an impossible weight to carry. They can be known or unknown, seen, or unseen, positive or negative, selfish or selfless, good or bad, and the list goes on and on and on. Expectations can be a lot of things. But the question isn’t what can expectations be. The question is, where do they come from?

You see, I’ve realized that I have accepted certain expectations of myself (and therefore others) even though I didn’t get them from God. For example, I expected that whenever I work with watercolors, it will be hard and a mess.

Ever since I was a kid, watercolors were really hard for me to get and understand how to use. Anytime I painted with them, I messed up. So I began to believe that any time watercolors were involved, I would mess up or that the piece wasn’t going to be that pretty. Because of these expectations, I stayed away from painting with them or even just enjoying using them. The people who are good with that medium, such as my sister, I leave the watercolors to them. Yet the main image of this post was done in watercolor, and with the help of some very colorful kids.

For one moment I let go of that expectation I created from experience and leaned into God. He told me to pick up the brush. To watch how the kids did it, to try again. I have to admit, I like the piece, but most of all I loved learning how to use it. When I was done, I was excited to see what else I could do with watercolors. Does that mean watercolors are my new favorite medium? No. But I’m not so closed off anymore. I see why my sister is good at watercolors and appreciate the different talents she has.

I shackled myself with this simple expectation about watercolors. But we all have many more shackling and burdensome expectations in our lives. Whether we notice how they imprison us or not, they are, because they’re not from God. They’re from others, and ourselves. We’re accepting a view of the future from beings that can’t see the future. And even if they did, guess who gave them that ability?

God sees, knows, and is in the future, past, and present. Time resides in God. Now before this becomes a physics topic, I’m saying this because, at the end of the day, an expectation (a strong belief of something that WILL happen or be) should come from a being that knows what will happen or be. You don’t go to the soup store for clothes and you won’t find a good pair of Skechers at the dollar store. So don’t go to yourself or others for expectations. Go to God.

Question the expectations you already have. Where do they come from? Are they from God? Are you willing to let go of them and let them come from Him?

God loves you. He wants the best for you and is waiting to give it to you. You just get to let Him give it all to you. Expectations, processes, everything. Let it be from God.