{"id":706,"date":"2011-06-07T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=706"},"modified":"2011-06-03T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T14:00:13","slug":"five-ways-to-beat-disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/06\/five-ways-to-beat-disappointment.html","title":{"rendered":"Five ways to beat disappointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a disappointing text message today from a good and close friend.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>The text wasn\u2019t aimed at me or even intended for me.\u00a0 Nevertheless,\u00a0disappointment vibrated through the Internet lines piercing my heart.\u00a0 I could feel the disappointment that emanated from the sender and the disappointment that struck the core-being of the\u00a0receiver.<\/p>\n

All of us experience disappointments in our lives.\u00a0 Some are big\u2013like a child who doesn\u2019t preform even to minimum standards of etiquette and behaviors.\u00a0 Of course, there is the initial and life-altering realization that smacks\u00a0parents when they realize\u00a0that their child has a disability.\u00a0 Some are small\u2013such as a bad hair day or\u00a0every time I reread a blog entry and I find another\u00a0typo that I didn\u2019t discover until \u00a0it was posted.<\/p>\n

Yet even as I write this, I\u2019m reminded of so many joy-filled people I know.\u00a0 There is my new friend, Bill.\u00a0 He is blind but his sense of humor allows him to play mind-games with others regarding his lack of sight.\u00a0 There is Matt whose disability keeps him on the outside of most activities that would engage other teenagers.\u00a0 However, his playfulness with small things like digging in the\u00a0dirt\u00a0allows him to entertain himself for hours.\u00a0 \u201cWhat a great day\u201d is his response after two or three hours of digging and recovering holes along the shore of the lake.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to me that the most miserable people I know aren\u2019t disabled.\u00a0 They seem to have everything they need, except peace and happiness.\u00a0 While on the other hand, the most joyful people I know have some type of developmental, physical or emotional condition which limits them in one way or another.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Could it be that God supernaturally gives people with disabilities an extra measure of\u00a0 joyfulness that fills their hearts?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 Not everyone with a disability is a happy, joyful person. Some of them are as miserable as\u00a0others.\u00a0 But I believe that people who suffer through disappointments\u00a0most often become the most grateful for what they have.\u00a0 Their quotient for gratefulness appears to out run and overtake their losses.\u00a0 The scriptures speak of God\u2019s allowance for suffering to melt, mold and bend hearts into vessels that He can use for eternity. \u00a0Five things seem to emerge from the lives of people who have weathered great disappointments and come through joyful.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They learn to choose joy rather than misery.<\/li>\n
  2. They learn to lean heavily on the promises of God contained in the Scriptures.<\/li>\n
  3. They don’t expect everything to go smooth and perfect in their lives.<\/li>\n
  4. They expect to grow through the pains of every day life. \u00a0Therefore, when big things hit, they are better prepared for that disappointment.<\/li>\n
  5. They learn to appreciate what they have and not yearn or grieve for what they do not have.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While I weep for the two people who sent and received the text that broke my heart, I also pray that God will somehow turn that pain into the blessing of joyful release.\u00a0 That they will exchange disappointment into an escape route,\u00a0allowing\u00a0the Lord Jesus to\u00a0wrap his arms around their hurt and despair turning it into joy.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I received a disappointing text message today from a good and close friend.\u00a0The text wasn\u2019t aimed at me or even intended for me.\u00a0 Nevertheless,\u00a0disappointment vibrated through the Internet lines piercing my heart.\u00a0 I could feel the disappointment that emanated from the sender and the disappointment that struck the core-being of the\u00a0receiver. All of us experience…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,20,3,40,10,16,8,85,12,41],"tags":[690,21,688,696,7,699,701,13,694,689,134,57,692],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-inspirational","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-prayer-2","category-religion","category-spirituality","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disabilities","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-overcoming-disappointment","tag-prayer","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nFive ways to beat disappointment - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/06\/five-ways-to-beat-disappointment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five ways to beat disappointment - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I received a disappointing text message today from a good and close friend.\u00a0The text wasn\u2019t aimed at me or even intended for me.\u00a0 Nevertheless,\u00a0disappointment vibrated through the Internet lines piercing my heart.\u00a0 I could feel the disappointment that emanated from the sender and the disappointment that struck the core-being of the\u00a0receiver. 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