Growing up there were so many things that you could absolutely count on happening. At our house if you had a birthday you not only got to have whatever you wanted on your cake, but you got to cut it for the family and if one of the brothers hadn’t been kind you were perfectly within your rights to cut him a tiny slice and nothing would be said! When spring came my grandmother on my Dad’s side would be opening the cottage for the summer, getting her “worm beds ready” (Yucky stuff!) and preparing to be out fishing every day until the frosts came in the fall. I learned to play scrabble at that cottage and though not a fisherman, I loved to pick bouquets of lily pads which my grandmother indulged me to do though she forever thought I was a sissy for not wanting to bait a hook or touch the fish on the line! When the pond froze over at the end of the street the shovels came out to move the snow and the “neighborhood Olympics” would begin. After Christmas all the trees came to the pond to build a warming house to take a break. Those were the days my friend! Now I am not saying that children today don’t have anything to count on, but I am saying the pace of life has interrupted routines so that life is definitely not as predictable as it once was.


Yesterday I realized that one reason I so adamantly refused to have expectations of others is that at some point in life the routines that defined my world disappeared for one reason or another and I felt a strong loss and need to make sure that my new orbit had good memories of routine for my children and took it upon myself to be everything. My good intention had results, but somewhere in the process I programmed my planet to believe that it was all up to me if anything good were to be left behind. My belief was so strong and yet I was completely oblivious to it! There is no doubt in my mind that I have missed a lot of blessings on my journey as others made an effort to enter my orbit and found it closed to trespassers.


As much as I was seeking the Lord during these years and believing in Him I find that I missed out on the very thing He wanted the most- relationship that I could absolutely count on every time no matter what! His mercies were new for me every day, but often I didn’t even look for them until well into the night after the disaster of the day had been lived. I resolve to open my eyes early in the day and expect a large slice of birthday cake heading to my plate…………………..