31 Days of Prayer for your Spouse {Day 18 :: Expectations}

Expectations

“The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.”

Proverbs 11:23

    There are two dangers when it comes to expectations. The first is that, in marriages, we often have unrealistic ones. Maybe your mother was a fabulous cook and you just expected your wife to be the same. Or, possibly, your dad was DIYing it before DIY was cool and you expected your husband to be equally handy with a hammer. When we carry these expectations into the relationship, we set our spouses up for failure. Or, worse, we instill in them an insecurity in their abilities to be good wives and husbands.   Secondly, expectations can crowd out grace. When we begin expecting our spouse to fail in a certain area, we do not leave room for them to grow. If there is an area in which they struggle, we should be covering that area of their lives in prayer knowing God can help them to overcome it. Just assuming they can never change or expecting them to always struggle is to limit the power of the One who created them.   Today, pray that your marriage would be about a mutual desire to find delight in each other instead of an expectation of what you may receive from each other. Ask God to open your eyes to the good in your spouse and to let go of wrongly placed expectations.      

      To see a list of all of the devotions for 31 Days of Prayer for Your Spouse, click here. Make 2014 the year that you add the most important ingredient for a wonderful and fulfilling marriage…grace! Dr. Kimmel’s new book Grace Filled Marriage is a great place to start! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google +. Subscribe to our blog!