No. Not a child. Way past that! Let's talk about what we expect. To get. To own. To do. And how do we expect to obtain those things or ascend to those places where we expect to go?
I'm grateful for my parents teaching those very important things to me must be earned. Worked for. Some require much more effort than others, but there is truth in the old adage which tells us the harder we work for something the more it tends to mean to us.
Don't get me wrong. I had plenty of things growing up. More than I needed. My parents were from the generation who suffered through The Depression and wouldn't allow that kind of difficulty to plague their children. My dad worked hard from his days as a young boy in the hardcore town of Butte, Montana, to the leisure days from having earned a good living in a career he loved. The son of immigrant parents whose father was a cobbler, he worked on street corners as a little boy selling newspapers, then flowers, helped his tough father work on shoes and boots in his shop, and of course he did what nearly everyone in Butte did at one time or another: he worked in the mines. When he fell in love with my mother, he knew he wanted something better for her and their eventual family, and as soon as he could, he moved from Butte with his wife and young son to Seattle, Washington, where he went to work in retail. His hard work paid off, and he retired an Executive Vice President of a respected retail chain.
He set before me an example of what devotion, passion, morality, and godly principles could accomplish in a life that never got a real education or had anything handed to him. My dad was a great man who loved people and gave his best to every kind of work he did. And was rewarded.
Sometimes we forget the blessings of hard work. We get so bogged down in the weariness of pursuing the goal we forget the additions to our character, to our perseverance, to our direction in this life. Writing and publishing present multiple challenges for some of us. There are some who breeze through the process and experience some fast success. I've seen it happen in the horse racing industry the same way. Newer members to the racing community somehow acquire a champion and gain a quick taste of fame and fortune. "Nobodys" are discovered in cafes and become Hollywood stars. We all know the stories. With Christians it's not supposed to be about our individual successes no matter how hard we work toward that end. It's supposed to be how we labor to accomplish what the Lord has designed for us to do. It isn't always like that, though, is it?
Sometimes it becomes a matter of expecting the Lord to do as we wish. In reality it's more like what is the Lord expecting me to do? When we can ask that question from our heart to His, we're well on our way to that success factor.
Father, help us to operate from your perspective. Help us to seek after you with whole hearts determined to gain more of you, less of our flesh. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.