When I taught fifth grade (miss those days!), the first two days of a new school year were pretty much “get acquainted” days. It wouldn’t have been fair for me to place expectations on kids before they knew what the expectations were, so we spent time laying out the classroom rules and assignment procedure and so forth. What I discovered is kids will live up or down to your expectations of them, so I set the bar a little high and then put the elements in place for them to be able to reach the bar. Watching them grow and succeed gave me tremendous pleasure, and the successes gave them confidence.

God has expectations for us. As His children, He expects us to reflect Him and walk in His ways. That’s a pretty high bar for us imperfect humans. But He doesn’t give us the expectation and then leave us floundering on how to reach it. He provided all the instruction we need in the Bible, His guide book. Then He gave us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our own personal “tutor,” so to speak. We can be holy—set apart for Him—when we follow His guidelines. When we grow in Him, we gain confidence to face the challenges of life. God’s a pretty amazing Teacher.