Lord, Shut My Mouth - Breaking Through OffensesSample

One Christmas years ago, I really knocked it out of the park on the gifts for my husband. I spent so much time ordering unique handmade random things that I just knew he would appreciate. So, I was expecting his reaction to be over the top. And that’s where I went wrong. Christmas morning, I was ready for the biggest smiles and accolades. Needless to say, he didn’t react how I thought he would react. And I got offended. How dare him not throw confetti in gratitude. I was so focused on his reaction, that I lost sight of what a true gift is. It’s giving something without expectation.

Unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment, anger, and resentment. The foundation for being offended. It’s like the idea of “Common courtesy”. Like when we hold the door open for someone and they don’t even give a “thank you” and we get offended. Or when we are always helping someone out and then they don’t come through when we need something, then we get offended.

We see the perfect example of how God wants us to handle things like expectations, in the parable of the laborers and the landowner. The morning that all the laborers showed up to work, they agreed with the landowner on a certain wage for their work and went about the day in the vineyard. An hour before quitting time, another group of laborers showed up and jumped in on the work too. When it came time for the paycheck, the morning laborers were angry because they felt that the landowner wasn’t “fair” in how much he paid everyone. They expected to get more money for working all day, than the people who had just worked an hour. Even though, they agreed on their wage before working. It’s funny how they wanted to tell the landowner how to spend his money.

We want to control the “fairness” of things, rules and how things are done. But when we do that, we become blind to the blessings that we have been given. We start to miss encounters with Jesus because we are too focused on how we’ve been wronged or how someone “should have” done it our way instead.

What if we released our expectations, acknowledged that we can’t control the response of others, and put our eyes back on Jesus? I think we wouldn’t be nearly as offended.