Hope is a word that holds much promise.  We hope for the best, hope for a better job, hope our children will turn out okay, hope that the car will start in sub zero weather, hope for a promotion, hope for change.  In fact. our president ran on a platform of “hope”.  As humans we want to always believe that things will turn out in the end.  We want things to change for us, so we hope for change.

The problem in life is that we often need to do more than just hope.  Hoping is not alway enough to create change.  Now certainly there are times when all we can do is hope.  If your child is sick in the hospital, you must trust the doctors to do their job and then hope is all that is left.  If your son or daughter is in a foreign land fighting to maintain freedom, you must trust God and hope she will be fine.  However, in much of life we can do more than hope.

If you are looking for a better job, hoping is not enough.  You may need to improve your skills, or advance your education.  Perhaps you are like a lot of parents and you “hope” your kids will stay away from drugs and out of trouble.  Hope is not enough, you must spend time with them, cultivate relationships that make them “think” before they take wrong actions.

The best thing about hope is that it can sustain us during hard times, but the bad thing about hope is that it is not enough to effect change on its own.  Hoping for something better is only the first step to getting something better.  After hope must come planning and designing that “something better”, then comes the action of making hope a reality.  What are you hoping for today, and what are you doing to make your hope real?