Hi, welcome my friend to a time of tea & reflection together.
Today I thought we would explore the expectations that are placed upon us & when we need to say, No!
First, let’s grab that all important cuppa. I’m enjoying a slice of toasted gf Banana Bread with butter melting upon its deliciousness & a cup of Berry tea.
As I write this on the East Coast of Australia it’s Wintery cold, so although the Sun is shining there’s a cold wind blowing in from the Antarctic so we’ll be enjoying our time indoors.
Expectations & Demands
In life there are always certain expectations placed upon us as responsible members of society.
This is just life on planet Earth & a part of being a contributing member of a cohesive society.
But I’m sure we’re all familiar with people who place their ideal expectations upon us & then demand we fill those expectations.
This is the topic we will be exploring today.
What does expectation entail?
Let’s define this before we continue because expectations always have an Ideal tag attached to them.
Ideal;
‘…implies perfection in reality or in concept’
Expectation is;
‘the feeling or belief that something will or should happen…
Expectations are interesting, aren’t they?
We often have expectations of our loved ones, our relationships, society & even ourselves.
The problem with expectations is that they’re constructed from our own perceptions.
Expectations involve a mixture of core beliefs, hopes, imaginings & past experiences.
We combine these, to have an anticipated but imagined outcome.
This can put undue pressure & stress on the focus of our expectation.
Giving an unrealistic level of expectancy which often results in disappointment.
This then leads to unfair judgements against whoever has not meet our expectations.
To be fair, there may be many circumstances surrounding unmet expectations in any relationship.
For example an individual may not be able to meet our expectations because of their own circumstances in life.
Or it’s simply beyond their capacity in their present season of life to meet those expectations.
While it is healthy to look forward to spending time with our friends & family, it is very unhealthy to have certain expectations that are unrealistic !
Because those expectations have been constructed by our own imaginings.
Let your Yes be Yes & your No be No…
There comes a time in life when expectations may become demands that we can not or should not meet.
A demand is;
This is the time we need to pause…
Within our pause we need to pray & seek God’s wisdom with such demands.
We also need to wisely consider our current personal capacity, responsibilities & commitments within our season of life.
If we cannot or should not meet these demands then we need to say…a kindly No.
For …’Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.’ Col 4: 6 Ref
We don’t need to give excuses as to why we can not meet those demands.
For as Jesus advised us in Matthew 5: 37,
‘Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.’ Ref
Until next time,
Jennifer
You’re also most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook
Or in Prayer
© 2023 Jennifer M. Ross, teawithjennifer.blog All Rights Reserved.
Discover more from Tea With Jennifer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Tea With Jennifer 
Thank you for this absolutely great post
You’re most welcome! ☺️
Thank you bunches for sharing this poignant message and lesson with Sweet Tea & Friends this month my friend.
You’re most welcome Paula 😊
Just had a slice of sourdough bread with Almond spread goodness, yumm…with hibiscus tea. To answer your question…I say NO often in order to say YES to me and what I planned for my day/time. Doesnt mean I am being mean, just being focused. I love this post.
Sounds delicious, yes we need to be wise in our decisions.
I was thinking of you this week, Jennifer, when I picked up a favorite book, The Light Between Oceans … set in Australia
Awww, it’s lovely to hear you were thinking of me Linda 😊.
I haven’t read that book I’ll have to look it up!
Jennifer, your insights about expectations spoke to my heart. It’s easy to try to meet others’ expectations without first considering if that is a healthy thing for me to do. Stopping to evaluate what’s driving the expectation is a great idea, and not one I always pause to consider. I hope you’re staying warm today! We’re in the 80s in my corner of the world. 🙂
I’m glad you found encouragement here Jeanne 😊
It’s 68F or 19C (as we use) here today which is lovely, overnight we had 42F or 9C so not too bad at the moment. It was way colder at the begining of Winter with – C temps.
So we’re enjoying some Sunny & warmer Winter days but of course that may change at any moment… 😉