When Lemons are Limes: A Lesson on Expectations

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” – Proverbs 19:21 NIV

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When we moved into our new home, I bought a lemon tree for our backyard patio.  I had picked out the best looking tree, bought the perfect pot, and the right kind of soil.

 

Everything was perfect.  There was nothing left to do but wait for the bounty to arrive.

 

The first blooms appeared, and small fruits began to form on the branches, and as they grew, I wondered…

 

Do lemons start out green, and ripen to yellow?

 

Alright, I know all you native Californians are probably getting a big laugh right about now, but in my defense as a New Yorker, I was a newbie to citrus trees.

 

Seriously, I kept waiting for them to turn yellow.  One day, I couldn’t take the suspense any longer, and I plucked one off the tree, cut it open, and took a taste.

 

It was a lime.

 

There went my expectations; all because one fruit turned out to be another.

 

Sound familiar?

 

Expectations are like a little invisible box of hopes and plans we carry around with us everyday, and when they fail or don’t live up, we frantically change or coax them into a result that isn’t too different from our original idea of “perfect”.

 

It’s a game of compromise.  If expectations aren’t met, we may settle for a lower standard, or we may push the proverbial square peg in the round hole.

 

I tried the peg in the hole thing when I went and bought another tree.

 

This time I double checked the labels and made certain I did everything in my power to bring home the perfect lemon tree.

 

The tree bloomed, and the fruit followed and…

 

It was another lime tree.

 

This is when most of us would see failed expectations as our greatest motivator, or our greatest discourager.

 

But what if they were also our greatest changer?

 

I have found when my expectations or plans meet resistance or go up in smoke, it usually means there’s some refining and purifying work that needs doing, so I ask myself a few questions:

 

“What are my true motivations right now?”

 

“Do I have something to learn first?”

 

“Have I spent enough time discerning God’s path for me, or have I been too busy paving my own?”

 

When God calls us to step out in faith (beyond lemon trees, I might add!), and stumbling blocks form or contention mounts, we have to fight lowering our expectations.

 

God calls us, “further up, and further in”, not down and out.

 

I want to encourage you to go through the refining process, don’t compromise, or try to change His call to your own thinking.  Let his Power rule.

 

Matthew Henry once wrote: “How much better is it to be approved of God than to have a vain opinion of ourselves!” So true!

 

Lord, thank you for your Power, and the lessons we learn from your Creation.  Teach me God, to have courage not to settle for a lower standard, but to submit to your refining fire; to set myself aside for the glory of your calling.  Amen.

 

When have your expectations really thrown you?  Did the Lord refine you through it?  Leave a comment!