Essay # 3 Complete: Their Expectations - His Realities

Type of Essay: Comparison and Contrast
Subject Given: Expectation vs. Reality
Grade Given: A

Their Expectations - His Realities

Someone once said, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.” A newly married couple may think they have life all figured out. They’ve found each other after a long and wearisome search – and now it’s time for life to really start. This newlywed couple plans to have a family, a business, and their own home, and all of this will happen in a smooth and timely manner. They daydream and commit their dreams to paper. Little do they know what realities God has in store for them.

They’ll wait a year before getting pregnant. Then the pregnancy will be heavenly bliss, filled with joy as the couple anticipates the arrival of their first child. The family will enjoy their time together for two years before inviting another child into the family. This process will continue until the couple has three or four children.

Their plan also includes building a business together. This business will thrive into a nationally known company. Life will be full of responsibilities – and some stress. However, the couple will be able to meet the demands of both home and business – simply because they are doing it together. Three years after they have their business up and running, they’ll purchase a home, and their family will all fit nicely into this quaint little home.

However, God has a much different plan in store for them. Though He might not really laugh at the couple’s good intentions, He knows the realities. He knows that becoming pregnant will not be hard for the couple. Yet, He also knows that once the wife is pregnant, illness and fatigue will plague her for the whole nine months leading up to the birth of their first son. He also knows that the couple’s second pregnancy will result in a disheartening miscarriage.

When the wife becomes pregnant for a third time, the couple will be thrilled and astonished by the news that she is pregnant with identical twin daughters. However, God knows that this third pregnancy will be the beginning of a refiner’s fire for the young family. He knows that after a long road of trying to bring the babies into the world healthy and strong, it will be to no avail. Their first daughter will be stillborn at delivery, and their second will live only eight days. The couple will have to face the journey of mourning the loss of their daughters together.

Not all will be tragedy and loss for this little family. God will ensure that there will be at least one peace-filled pregnancy for this wearied mother. She will deliver a healthy baby boy after the loss of the twins. The life and vibrancy of the boys in this family will fill their home with laughter and cheer. As husband and wife, the couple will grow in love as they struggle to make many hard decisions and find joy through the sorrows.

Just as God knows the realities of the couple’s child-baring plans, He knows the realities of the couple’s business as well. They will work hard to build it into a thriving business but then have to sell it so the mother can focus on her children.

The money from the sale, which was meant to purchase the home of their dreams, will go to pay hospital expenses. Then the husband, who is no longer a business owner, will be forced to enter college, much later in life then planned.

So five years after marriage, the couple will be raising two children instead of five and, instead of being thriving business owners, they will both be full-time students. Also, rather then living in a quaint home of their own, they’ll be living in an apartment above his parent’s garage.

The couple will understand that though it’s good to plan ahead and set high expectations, one must understand that The Man Upstairs, who knows the greater plan and paints the masterpiece of life, might have other realities.