Standards

Everyone has some kind of standard that they hold people to. I expect my English teacher to be well-spoken, and my French teacher to parler le francais. But people hold standards to me too. My friends expect me to be funny, my teachers expect me to be just like my sister, my parents expect me to know what's going on all the time. I feel like I can never quite meet the standards people hold me to, and I've found that most of the time, people don't quite measure up to my expectations either. Now, God holds us to certain standards, and they can be really difficult to live up to. In fact, I don't think I've ever truly met up to God's standards. He expects us to love EVERYONE and to be joyful ALL the time and not to complain EVER. God expects us not to think ONE mean thought about ANYONE. I can be as sweet as can be on the outside, and on the inside be degrading them until long after I've left them. That's definitely wrong. Now, I don't know if it's even possible to not think one nasty thought, but I don't even really try anymore. That's wrong. We should always strive for God's standard, not our own. I've really been thinking about what my standards for myself are, and this is what I've come up with:

1. Be a good friend to your best friends.
2. At least pretend to listen and take notes when the teacher is lecturing.
3. Don't be too mean to your brother and sister.
4. Try not to snap at that girl in history class who's being judgmental and a know it all more than once per day.
5. Pass all classes.
6. Always know what's going on.
7. If you don't know what's going on, fake it.
8. Don't be mean about people unless they can't hear you.
9. Be responsible only as long as someone else expects it.
10. Try to be respectful of others as long as they are being respectful to you.

The list goes on, but you can see how pathetic these are. I should be a good friend to ALL my friends, and I should really take notes when my teachers are lecturing. I shouldn't snap at the girl from history EVER, and my siblings don't need me to be mean to them at all. The saddest part of this is that I fall short of my own standards all the time. If I can fall short of my imperfect standards so often, just imagine how often I fall short of God's standards for me. I can't even guess how disappointed God is in me on a daily basis. But even though I do screw up, I know God loves me anyway. Just like my parents. I might forget to do the dishes when that's my chore, or yell at my brother, but they love me anyway, and God's the same.