Copyright 2012: singeronthesand
My soul, wait only upon God,
for my expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5
I absolutely adore the comic strip Stone Soup by Jan Eliot. The main characters are two sisters, Val and Joan, who live next door to each other. Val is a single mother to 13-year-old diva Holly and 10-year-old tomboy Alix; included in her household is Evie [their mom], and Biscuit, the dog. Next door, younger sister Joan is married to Wally, and raises preschool terror Max and baby Lucy. Also included in this household is Wally's nephew, Andy, a teenager who has chosen to live with his uncle after the implosion of his own family.
The story lines in this comic strip are so realistic, one feels like peeking out the window to see if Jan Eliot is, by chance, spying on one's family. Time and again, I have burst out laughing at the comic's sage wisdom, having gone through a similar situation myself. Sometimes it is difficult to remember that these are comic characters, not real people.
I loved today's strip because it deals with the changing of expectations as we grow, and as life changes in the swirling cauldron of family life. Joan talks about the fantasies she had as a young girl as to how her life would be written. Val asks her sister if she is disappointed in the way life has turned out. Joan's answer? "No - I just adjusted my expectations as I went."
Expectations of how someone is going to behave, or how a situation is going to evolve, or how things "should be" often get us in enormous problems, because anticipation rarely matches reality. Wise is the person who can go rise above expectations, and adjust their dreams to the life that is before them. The Psalmist set his expectations upon God - the One who never changes - today, tomorrow, and forever.
The story lines in this comic strip are so realistic, one feels like peeking out the window to see if Jan Eliot is, by chance, spying on one's family. Time and again, I have burst out laughing at the comic's sage wisdom, having gone through a similar situation myself. Sometimes it is difficult to remember that these are comic characters, not real people.
I loved today's strip because it deals with the changing of expectations as we grow, and as life changes in the swirling cauldron of family life. Joan talks about the fantasies she had as a young girl as to how her life would be written. Val asks her sister if she is disappointed in the way life has turned out. Joan's answer? "No - I just adjusted my expectations as I went."
Expectations of how someone is going to behave, or how a situation is going to evolve, or how things "should be" often get us in enormous problems, because anticipation rarely matches reality. Wise is the person who can go rise above expectations, and adjust their dreams to the life that is before them. The Psalmist set his expectations upon God - the One who never changes - today, tomorrow, and forever.
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