“Products of Our Expectations”

                As a Psychology major I grew up thinking that about eighty percent of who we became was determined by our environment and about twenty percent resulted from genetics.  Then I became an adoptive parent and re-evaluated my conclusion.   Just a few years back, I began teaching in children’s church and learned I was wrong again.  We aren’t mere products of genetics or our environment.  Instead, I discovered each of us are most shaped by our expectations and the hopes others have for us.           

                In 1 Corinthians 1: 7-10 we find the apostle asking, “What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to drink some of the milk? ⁸ Am I expressing merely a human opinion, or does the law say the same thing? ⁹ For the law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? ¹⁰ Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.”

                What are the deeds and acts you have been engaging in?  Are you expecting a return on your investment of time, blood, sweat, and tears?   You should.   Remember, our expectation is not in the amount of faith we have or even what actions we perform.  In Luke 17: 5-6, Jesus reminds us that even if our faith is only as tiny as a mustard seed it has the power to accomplish what we tell it to do.  Keep holding out faith regardless of what you see happening around you.   “Faith expects from God with is beyond all expectation.” (Andrew Muray).   Have a Blessed Day.