Great Expectations

I've lived a pretty easy life.  School was always something I enjoyed and I excelled at.  I didn't accept my first "B" until I was a junior in college, married and working a part-time job 20 hours a week and even then I didn't swallow it well.  I graduated high school as Valedictorian, was awarded the Top Sophomore award together with another young lady at Culver-Stockton and graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors from TCU.  From the beginning of my working career, I experienced great work environments that always provided me ample promotion and growth opportunities.  I have always enjoyed the ability to do things well and accomplish any task set before me.  Several years ago as I transitioned to the position of a stay-at-home mom, I approached the new "position" with the same great expectations I have in each and every transition in my life.  I had high hopes of highly organized schedules, closets, bedrooms and living areas.  I had dreams of cooking new and exciting meals for dinner each night.  The June Cleaver picture, if you may, as I welcomed my wonderful husband home each day to our clean and inviting home wearing my freshly pressed dress, pearls and high heels and most importantly...my smile - because as we learned from Annie - "you're never fully dressed, without a smile."  After a few months, I came to a rapid realization that I was living something completely opposite the dream I had conjured up in my mind.  My days were beginning to resemble the frantic antics of Lucy Ricardo instead of the collected June Cleaver.  I have spent the last 4 years trying to attain the "June Cleaver" persona only to have my hopes dashed on a daily basis.  Over the last couple months I've come to a new conclusion.  I'm not June Cleaver, I will never be June Cleaver and most importantly...I don't have to be June Cleaver.  I've learned a few new techniques (thanks to FLYLADY) to help calm the chaos that ensues in our home on a daily basis.  More importantly, I'm learning a new attitude and the need to de-clutter my life of the great expectations I have placed upon myself.  My Jesus is teaching me that the best expectations are those that He has appointed for me and all other expectations are holding me captive and hindering the abundant and effective, spirit-filled life God has planned for me.  It's a process, a long process...a process I'll call "breaking free."


The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ~John 10:10