Learning to Deal with Disappointment

How you learn to manage your disappointments in your life will determine your destiny.

-Christine Caine

Disappointments come all around us in life.  They start coming even when we’re little.  When the friend chooses someone else to share her cookie with that day or when we don’t get to go on a class trip or when we miss out on getting the most amazing new toy ever.  Sometimes we’ll pout and throw our fits.  Other times we’ll get mean and say some angry words because at the core, we’re hurt.

 Then we get a little older and well, the disappointments don’t stop coming.  The little disappointments are still there like missing out on getting a cute new Starbucks mug because they sold out or missing going to a store because it closed or someone else getting what we wanted.  “Bigger” things too can crush our fragile hearts like not getting picked for a job or watching a ministry close down or not being able to get pregnant or watching our plans change.  That’s when we might simply cry because we had a plan and now it’s going all wrong.  We’d prayed and prayed and things weren’t supposed to turn out this way.

I started writing this post on December 12, 2011.  I had no clue on that day what God would do in my life and how different everything would be just a year later.  There’s the acknowledgement that if some of my disappointments hadn’t come, I wouldn’t be where I am today.  Yet, there’s also the acknowledgement that those disappointments were exactly that. A disappointment.  Something to feel, grieve, and walk out.  Even when good is worked out of a situation, it can still hurt.

But that’s where Christine Cain ever so convictingly reminds us that how we handle those disappointments will determine our destiny.  Will we stay in our hurt and in turn hurt those around us?  Will we thank and worship God even so?  Will we hold grudges and reject others because of our jealousy or hurt?  Will we choose faith or fear? How will we handle our disappointments?

Lord, I haven’t always handled my disappointments with grace and love….help me, teach me, and be with me as the disappointments keep coming so that I can handle them in a healthy, godly way that draws me closer to You.

Monday Musings

• excited to listen to this podcast when it comes out and love some of the thoughts Perry posted already:
  • Love for her intimacy with God…and not just the information she knows about Him!
  • When you focus on what you do not have (a relationship) more than you focus on Jesus and His Word…the result is usually compromise.
  • AND…YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COMPROMISE…EVER!!!  If I could sit down face to face with every single girl I would say the same thing…WAIT for God’s best…it’s worth it.
• had my first “see you in His timing”
  • my heart is already aching at the thought of saying more of those soon…
• hung out with Lindo today….man, that kid is too much fun and I love his family
  • definitely made me smile today
  • working on making a video of the tons of pictures I have of him 🙂
  • can’t wait for next week so i can give him a soccer ball and whatever else random I find in town for him…so what does a 5 year old like?

  

• “no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.” ht: note
  • The weapon of jealousy will NOT prosper against you because we will CELEBRATE what God is doing
  • The weapon of feeling insignificant will NOT prosper against you because HE MADE YOU SIGNIFICANT when He saved you and called you…your significance comes from your salvation…not from “success” in ministry.
• can’t wait to see this girl.
• asking God to hold me tight tonight and help me fight
  • feeling a bit broken tonight.
  • getting away with Him.
• listening to this guy thanks to his free music. 
  • speaking of music. integrity music and their free song on friday makes me happy

Day of Thoughts, part 2

“Romance is the deepest thing in life, romance is even deeper than reality.”
G.k. Chesterton

Thoughts from a talk on leadership:

• Fear is a backwards motivator
• Pure obedience comes from a love for Jesus
• What are you trying to hide?
• Keep your heart yielded and keep following Him.
• When you understand the way of a leader as being a shepherd then you will be a dynamic leader.
• A shepherd feeds his sheep everyday and only shears once a year.

Andy Stanley Series: That Hideous Thing (jealousy)

• You think God ripped you off.  God could have given you this, God could have done that.
• 1 Cor. 13 You can’t love until you get rid of envy
• 1. Acknowledge this truth and take it to God. I think God owes me. 2. Confess your jealousy to the person if you need to. 3. Celebrate the people you envy and celebrate them out loud.”

Captivating: Healing the Wound

• Now, Jesus said, don’t you think God cares just a little bit more for you than for the birds of the air? “Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matt. 6:26).  Indeed, you are.  You, dear heart, are the crown of creation, his glorious image bearer.  And he will do everything it takes to rescue you and set your heart free.
• He came to restore the glorious creation that you are.  And then set you free….to be yourself
• Our journey toward healing begins when we repent of those ways, lay them down, let them go. 
• Healing never comes against our will
• We all still need to know and find the answers in God: Do you see me? Am I captivating? Do I have a beauty all my own? Will you heal me? Can you really heal me? Am I really worth it?