Winter or summer, I like to have ice in my cold drinks. One of my sons-in-law doesn’t want ice in his cold drinks. This could just be a personal preference, but it seems strange to me since he grew up in Florida while I grew up in South Dakota. Given the heat index in Florida all year long and the winter cold index in South Dakota, it seems like it should be the other way around. How often what we expect doesn’t match what is real. Sometimes this is a problem in human relationships. We may have expectations of another person that they have no idea about. How often, even in married life, do we discover that there are expectations (often unspoken) which our spouse may not match. Just because we love someone does not mean that we always anticipate what they expect from us. Our differing experiences growing up and observing marital interaction can set us up for misunderstanding. A forgiving attitude can do much to smooth relationships. Even in the church, we may have expectations that no set of flawed human beings can ever quite match. Perhaps even in our relationship with God our expectations may be out of touch with God’s will and purposes. It can be painful when life does not live up to our expectations. TV, movies, and advertising may have so raised our expectation that reality may never be able to measure up to our fantasy. We are wise when we do not let our desire for perfection blind us to miss the good because of exaggerated expectations. We are blessed if we look at our life and say, like God at creation, “It is good!”