Disappointments

A counselor once told one of our daughters, “The gap between expectation and reality is disappointment.” I’ve often thought what a great definition.

Recently, I’ve been using a thirty day devotional on resilience by John Eldridge. The time this morning was about disappointment and our ability to surrender that to God – even when our disappointment is with Him!

So in rather uncharacteristic self-reflection, I did spend some time thinking about where in my life I feel disappointed and more importantly, why.

As I reflected, I realized that most of my disappointment is around timing. Patience is something I strive to practice although to be honest, I’m more of a immediate expectations kinda gal.

I want God to hurry up and rush people – especially my people – through processes and learning that He graciously gave me space and time for rather arduous journeys. I want to see things happen and work out and people grow, especially grow up for crying out loud.

And yet, here I am. Thankful that He has been so incredibly patient with me, and still is!

I also discovered that I can be disappointed in the timing and still be hopeful of the outcome. And by hopeful, I really mean trust God for His best outcome for both the person and the situation. Disappointment and hope are not mutually exclusive.

God is ok with both.