What I Experience When I Revise My Expectations of My Day

I am jostled awake by the radio blaring. The light glaring through the window announces that a new day arrived. As I struggle to make sense of my conscious state, my mind quickly scans through the moments ahead: What do I expect of this day?
I mentally check off the items that come to mind. Drive my son to school, exercise, teach my daughter, fix dinner…..
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” (Psalm 5:3)
Did I ask God to show me how I might bless others today? Am I ready for answers to my prayers about the sinful areas of my life that need reshaping?
As I commit this day to its Creator, I am aware that the sacred moments that await may lead to new understandings bearing joy as well as painful reminders of brokenness. But God’s hand is woven through it all. For He called it into being.
So I Iook at the day with a renewed lens. I pray for those I pass routinely on my route to school. The man whose high school daughter kisses him good-bye as she walks across the street to the bus stop. What does the day hold for each of them?
The teacher, unlocking the door, for another opportunity to impact a squirley junior high student’s life; beyond things of the classroom. Does he carry personal turmoil with him along with the bags hanging from his shoulder?
The woman walking her dog. What’s in store for her today? Is she in need of hope?
And I commit to being inconvenienced for God’s sake. Veering off schedule and expectations doesn’t come easy to me. Yet, I am blessed as I listen to a man in the grocery store share about his experience in the war and why he’s waiting for his wife to finish shopping but he’s not with her.
When I refine my expectations of the day, I am blessed. My feet take me to new  places where I meet God in ways never anticipated. But that, I did expect.
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