Monday Motivation – New Peace Series – The Expectation Hurdle
Good Monday! Is your day off to a great start?
Pouring rain has held me back from my morning walk; my plan shot. I can get over this one; it’s a minor detour in my day.
I’m just going to be honest though; broken expectations are my biggest trouble.
A hurdle I struggle to get over, when life is racing along, I trip over the assumption that things in my day are going to go according to my ideals. As I trip over what I thought would happen, my peace keeps going, while I lay a lump on the track of life.
Not only does peace leave me as I allow myself to go down, because of my reaction to these unmet expectations, my family gets tripped as well. They are stuck with a me who becomes suddenly quite, short or any other form of distancing myself.
Take yesterday for instance.
I don’t like to cook on Sundays.
I have this ideal, gotten from my own days of growing up, that we will all go to church as a family and then out to lunch.
This rarely happens.
My husband and I are part of our set-up team for our portable church; we arrive every other Sunday between 5:30 – 6:00 p.m. That means, by lunch time, the day is already feeling long. My youngest daughter volunteers on the greeting team for both services which means she isn’t done until 1:30 p.m. My oldest, after attending first service, has been called into work several times over the past month.
Yesterday was one of the days when the ideal wasn’t happening and I was pouting my peace away.
My words said, “I don’t mind cooking; what would you like?” When it came to actually getting in the kitchen and whipping something up though, there was nothing peaceful about my service. As I took the meal to my family, I once again tripped over the hurdle of expectation and allowed my peace to flee.
Peace is not something I should be so quick to give up.
Peace is not simply the absence of chaos, fighting or unmet expectations.
Peace is who is in me.
Judges 6:24 tells us “So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”
I have no idea where Ophrah of the Abiezrites is, but I love the words before the name of this location, “to this day it stands”.
The Lord of Peace lives in me. No matter if I am making lunch on Sunday, helping a child struggling in Civics or believing for salvation for one I love so dearly, the Lord of Peace lives in me. He doesn’t leave me when I fall down (Hebrews 13:5) so I shouldn’t let the feelings of peace make me feel as if He does.
This Sunday, knowing that the hurdle is coming, I’m going to connect with my Peace earlier in the day. With the power of Peace who lives in me, I’m going to speak honestly and then accept, with His help, what happens next.
Jesus- this is my peace plan. Empower me to follow through! Amen
Do you struggle to keep your peace when things don’t go as you planned? What plan could you put in place so your peace doesn’t run away from you?
My peace is from Christ. He said he gave it to me. That is unbelievable to me, but Jesus said that is what he would do. “My peace, I give to you.”
Now, my. “feelings” is where I have to work. They really change throughout the days. I like feeling organized. When that feeling gets jolted, I’m jolted.
The way I get back to level is to try and remember that this is life. Plans change. Other people have feelings. Things break. Plumming leaks. Somebody said they’d help and they didn’t show up.
I’m still learning that a stable life of peace is to let life happen. There’s a better day comin’ if not tomorrow, it will be the ultimate day when we see the one who died for us.
As my friend Lysa TerKeurst says, “If this is the worse that happens, it’s still a pretty good day :)”
Thanks for sharing, Linda. You always have so much wisdom! I hope I will be like you when I grow up (smile!)
I can definitely relate to your comment on “expectations”. Unmet expectations, of myself and my family, are a huge joy stealer especially on Sunday mornings when i am desperately trying to get everyone to s.s./church on time. Growing up we always had breakfast together as a family, white tablecloth, special dishes special food etc., now i am happy if we eat before leaving and not in the car. 🙂 Some Sundays are better than others, but, it is always a challenge and one that I can only accomplish when I let the God of peace step in and take over. Starting with me.
Barbara…I wonder if one day our kids will think, “When I was growing up…”
I hope they have those good memories!
I sing my peace. I have a number of song memorized that are peace restoring. Not jumpy songs like, ♫I’ve got peace like a river… ♫, but songs like, ♫ You are my all in all♫.
Thank you for sharing your Sunday….I have had the feeling, oh, too many times on Sunday after church.
“Hi, my name is Deena, and I am a recovering Sunday after church grumbler”.
Deena…I love that! You are hilarious!
My peace was threatened this morning. My mother-in-law asked me to meet her at the vet’s office to help her take their 90+ lb chocolate lab in for some minor surgery, and invited me for breakfast after. I was looking forward to seeing her, having a quick breakfast, and getting to my long list of to-do’s. She, however, had different plans. She had to drop her car off at the dealership for some work, asking me to drive her to breakfast. What I thought would be a quick one turned out to be 2+ hours (her car work took some time) and then she came over to look at some pictures and kill time til the car was done. Then finally, past lunch time, I took her to pick up her car.
My peace was disturbed for a few minutes…but then I thought of what a blessing she was–at age 80–to spend time with. Thankfully our relationship has always been good and she has helped me out so much with family things that I just could not begrudge her a few extra minutes.
If I don’t spend time in Bible study and prayer first thing in the morning, I usually don’t “get to it” at all, so that is my priority–first thing in the morning. I think that helps me keep my peace even when my expectations are not met.
PS I resent interruptions to my Sunday afternoons too, but am trying to relax at that too…:-)
Great post!