HOPE

 

H – Having

O – Only

P –Positive

E – Expectations

What are your expectations in life what are you gunning for?

Life tends to have a mix of all sorts of things, the good, the bad, the ugly, the pleasant, the unpleasant, the mundane, the exceptional and all sorts of other things thrown in for good measure.

Wikipedia defines hope as the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. It say’s despair is the opposite of hope.

I believe that hope is one of a number of essential ingredients that make for a successful life. Some of the others are hard work, commitment, dedication, focus, specific goals, specific time frames………………etc., etc.

Hope is great; it allows us to have positive emotions and a positive mental attitude. But just hoping things will turn out right doesn’t really cut it does it? Like it or not we actually have to go out there and put in the necessary effort to ensure our positive dreams become reality.

I’m sure any one of the Olympians / Paralympians will tell us it has taken years of hard work, years of training in the good times and in the bad, commitment to diets, sleep regimes and total focus on their desired outcomes for them to eventually stand on the podium and be hailed by millions. Some of their colleagues, who we may never hear anything about, may have fallen by the wayside. The going got a bit too tough for them and they gave up on their dreams, not being able to endure the stress.

Today I ask you what are your hopes, what are your dreams? Can you write them down make them concrete, tangible, which is often the first step in them becoming a reality!

The second question I ask you is, are you willing to give all that it takes to enable those hopes of today to become your reality of tomorrow?

One important thing is that our hopes and desires should be in line with what the Lord wants for us. The bible says in Proverbs 10:28 “The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish” (ESV).

It is the desire of our Father for us to succeed, but He wants us to do so in a way which is right by Him. He wants to be able to endorse our plans and thereby assure us of success.

So maybe the third question should be; will your hopes glorify the Father? If your answer is yes, then you can rest easy, knowing that one with God is majority and victory will surely be yours!

Summer is coming to an end and even 2012 has started seeking out its good-bye handkerchief, but we are not done yet. Your hopes for 2012 can still be fulfilled, so don’t give up, the hurdle may be a little high, but you can scale it, you can push through and come 31^st December 2012 you can present yourself with your very own gold medal.

I wish you all the very best in your pursuits for the rest of this year and may your expectations never be cut off!

God bless, LolaA