Enjoying Instead of Expecting

I had a little bit of a crash and burn birthday the first year I was home. I had big expectations for the day, not necessarily in terms of gifts and celebrations, but in terms of what I wanted to do.

But then I got a little cold. My parents ran late. The restaurant I wanted to go to had a long wait. My blood sugar got low and I got hangry/chicken little syndrome. I demanded that my parents take me home, and I didn't eat anything but a quesadilla and carrot sticks for dinner. (This isn't great, I know, but the truth.) Eventually we rescheduled the dinner date and celebrated, but the whole thing kind of put a damper on my birthday.

You would think I learned from that experience, but this year, I felt expectations rising again. I didn't want a big celebration for my birthday. (In fact, I told my parents that.) But I specific ideas of how I wanted things to go.

And the Spirit convicted me. I had all these expectations. I was falling prey to fear. I was getting anxious and irritable and overall not nice. I felt the Spirit say to me, "Stop expecting. Starting enjoying."

That really loosened my grip on things. By God's grace, I was able to let go a little and go with the flow. And the day really went well, which was a blessing. But maybe the greatest gift was being able to relax, and live, and enjoy instead of expecting. God is good.