Expectations or Demands?

Picture this; a girl walks into a store with a limited amount of money with the intentions of leaving with a pair of shoes. now while she doesn't have the exact pair in mind, she sure hope that when she eventually leaves the store she'll have a pair of shoes  that'll make her feel really good. now comes the dilemma one which i'm sure all of us have been in several times in the course of our lives; the store has rather appealing options and i'd love to exploit all of them if i could, but i can only go down one path. the question is which one to choose? if you have been there, or you have a choice to make at the moment, read on and see my thoughts on the matter.

 if we carefully consider the dilemma that is decisions making, we find something that we all; race,gender economic and social status irrespective have in common.  in my opinion the crux of the dilemma lies in the question; will this job, proposal, option, person, place and so on give me what i really want? but even bigger than this question is one question that people the world over generally have no answer to, or choose not to be asked for that matter, what do you really want from life? pause for a moment and consider that question do you really have a clear answer to that question? given the choice would your answer be one that you have settled in your heart prior to now? or will it take you down a thought process you'd rather not go at the moment?

Most of us have dreams and wishes that we hope to get to sometime in the future, and sooner or later life presents us with a forked path where we must chose to go in one direction or another. and most often our choices are based on what we think those choices will pay to us by way of satisfaction of one need or another. But, the central thing to note is our out look to life. Do we expect things from life or do we demand things from life? Whats the difference you might ask, when we expect things from life we speak about dreams, hopes and aspirations. But when on the other hand we demand things from life, it comes from clearly stated goals, decisions and actions that we are looking at to yield to us the things they normally/naturally should. 

 Let me explain. A farmer, tills the soil plants seeds (rice for instance) that have been painstakingly selected he does everything that he should do to ensure the plants do well. Then he expects rain (which is out of his power and influence)  let us assume in this case, that doesn't get it. he makes a dam for his farm and irrigates it then he demands a harvest at the end because its his due because, that is the natural course of events. he has has done everything that he should so he places a demand on the crop for a harvest. see the difference?when he hoped for rain/good weather  it was just that; hope. but when he demanded a harvest it went just beyond wishing for it he did things that ensured that he would get what he wanted.

We should not be going through life with just hope. yes, certain things are out of our control and try as we may we cant change the course of some events but, on the other hand there are those that are almost totally in our control and those ones are the ones that our every waking moment should be focused on. How does this affect my decision making process you might be tempted to ask its simple; when we look at every decision in the light of our destination, the choices are easier to make, now instead of looking at them in an A, B or C way we, begin looking at them in a which one takes me from A to B  mode.
When we learn to streamline our decisions in the light of our destinations we make conscious choices instead of guesses and shots in the dark. all of us remember how much time we waste on multiple choice questions when we are not sure what the answers are. In the same way our choices in life are made easier and faster when we make up our minds where we want to get to at the end of our day. the bottom line is, knowing your destination puts you in a position to place demands on life instead of having expectations from life.as Ephesians 6vs 13 says, you need to have done all.


This concept, actually goes beyond only making choices it influences life style, relationships, career choices and even the food's we eat. It streamlines us together with our actions and puts purpose to our lives. When we know where we want to get to, the choice of how to get there, who to go there with, and what to take there and what needs to be done to get there becomes much more easy and less convoluted. Our decision making becomes more efficient Jesus says in Luke 14vs 2, that a man intent on building a tower counts the cost. he knows what a tower needs and he finds out if he has them all, the flip side is that he at the same time knows what building the said tower doesn't need. so ask your self where am i going to and what are the things i'm carrying with me that will not help me get there? discard them, then add those things which you really do need and watch your life get uncluttered.

so just as the girl at the beginning had a hard time choosing shoes, we all have other stuff we have a hard time making a choice over that don't require soul searching. for some of us, some choices have been settled a long time ago for instance, every time there is a choice to be made between strawberry and vanilla flavored ice-cream or in fact any ice-cream for that matter, vanilla wins all the time.

Have fun, its a wonderful summer and you're alive to spend it.


P/S when you're done reading some feedback will be highly appreciated.