Imaginary Expectations

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We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.
                                                 1 Thessalonians 2:4b

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Are you trying to live up to expectations that you only imagine people have for you? Sometimes we construct these false ideas of what we think people expect from us; how they want us to act or to look. Oftentimes these self-manufactured standards cannot be lived up to or even met and we are left with this overwhelming feeling that we are letting people down.
 
Wives, have we constructed a vision of how we assume our husbands want us to be?
Moms, have we decided that we are not enough for our children because “social media mom” does it so much better?
Sisters, have we been hiding our brokenness from each other out of fear of rejection?

When we try to live up to imaginary expectations in an attempt to please people, we can take our eyes off of what is most important: our relationship with God. We must let God’s perception of us take center stage in our lives if we are ever going to become the wives, moms and sisters that He desires for us to be.

So what does God expect from us? The truth is that God expects very little from us. He expects that we will be broken, helpless and insufficient on our own. He knows that time and again we will fall, make mistakes and hurt ourselves. However, at the same time God demands perfection as we read in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
 
So, how do we reconcile this? How do we live up to a seemingly impossible standard? The answer is faith. Faith is required to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) By faith we cling to our salvation through Jesus Christ as if we were holding onto a life preserver. Through this faith the sanctification process begins. Faith is the only thing that can take a broken, helpless and insufficient person and make them perfect in God’s eyes.
 
Sometimes we get so preoccupied with people pleasing that we forget that our faith in Jesus Christ has made us new creations. We continue to see ourselves as if we are not enough and assume that others see us this way too. These false perceptions hinder us from thriving in our relationships; we can become an insecure wife, a discouraged mom and a half-hearted friend.
 
We must not allow our insecurities to sully the beauty of our identity in Christ. We need to stop worrying about what the world may think about us and start remembering how God sees us. We will certainly mess up from time to time, but by focusing on His grace toward us and allowing His Spirit to work in our hearts, we will become more intentional in our relationships with others. Things like extending mercy, offering forgiveness and showing love will become actions that we want to do and they will bring glory to God while helping our earthly relationships to flourish.
 
As we go through our days remembering who we are in Christ, we will be freed from worrying about what others may think of us. We can begin to thrive as the persons God is making us to be.

Additional scripture references:
2 Corinthians 5:17
Proverbs 29:25
Hebrews 11:6
Philippians 2:13

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