Find Hope in God's Unfailing LoveSample

Tell It Like It Could Be

“Love . . . always looks for the best.” 1 Corinthians 13:7 (MSG)

Many people boast, “I just tell it like it is!” Don’t tell it like it is. Tell it like it could be. When you have high expectations of other people, you encourage them to rise up to the calling God has on their lives.

One example of this comes from a story about a new professor at his first faculty meeting. One of the other professors saw his teaching assignments and said, “You’ve been given two of the Section A classes. They’re the brightest students in the university. They’re really engaged and a joy to teach.”

The new professor discovered that to be true—he absolutely loved teaching those students. They were smarter and asked better questions.

At the end of the year, he told his department head, “I hope I get the Section A classes again next year!” The department head told him, “There is no Section A. We canceled that program six years ago.”

The professor compared his grade books and found that the Section A students had gotten more A’s and had written more thoughtful term papers than his other classes. He realized that because he expected them to be better students, they rose to the challenge.

Throughout your life, you will shape the people around you by your expectations of them. When you expect the best from others, you help them to live up to all that God created them to be.