Growing Into Expectations

Often we have grand plans and expectations for ourselves and our families. Implementing those plans and living up to those expectations involves a lot of work over a long period of time.

I like Shawni Eyre Pothier's thoughts on "growing into my expectations." She relates her experience switching to a new camera.

 "I immediately started shooting with confidence. You see, in my mind, there was no effort involved on my part in making the camera switch. I was quite confident that the new technology would magically shift me over into the realm of out-of-this-world photography.

To my surprise, the first pictures I downloaded weren't anything fancy. My second batch wasn't so hot either...nor was my thirteenth. ...  I gradually realized that I was going to have to really work with this thing. But of course, since I love photography so much I was willing to put in the hours it took to get on the right path. ...

But again, for the love of my hobby I'm up for the challenge. I learn new things all the time and build on the base I have. The learning curve doesn't go away. There is always something new to reach for and it's ok that it's hard and overwhelming at times, because I love it.

Then she relates a situation with her children - a time when she had some pretty high expectations for a family road trip. It didn't quite work out the way she envisioned it. 

"... in reality the best things in life come after working hard on them. Not that we haven't worked our little hearts out with [our family] ..., but just like I'm always figuring out new photography tidbits along the way, even more so as a mother I have to continually strive to re-evaluate how we are doing things. I have to have my mind open to new tactics along the way."

Sometimes I have to remind myself of my favorite saying my wise mother says: "Life is Long."

Some day we will take road trips again as a family.

Some day down the road, if I work at it and take baby steps I will probably be standing in some art museum with all my children ooooo'ing and ahhhhhhh'ing about the majesty of how artists portray what they do.

Some day I'm sure a lot of my grand expectations will come to fruition.

Some of them I will most probably realize weren't really the right expectations in the first place.

It may take years or decades to reach the worthy-to-reach-for ones. And the majority of them most certainly won't come without work.

But if I continually, prayerfully re-make and realign how I deal with things as a mother, they will come.

And the reward will be that much sweeter.

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