Proverbs 15:22
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established.
A person doesn’t get too far along in life without realizing that disappointments are a part of life. Life is not one big fairy tale, is it?
Just up the road a mile or so from our house is the winter home of the great inventor Thomas Edison. His laboratory is still there as well. I’ve been through both of those facilities several times and it was always encouraging. I have heard, although I cannot attest to its being a fact that Edison made over a thousand experiments before he got an electric light to work. One thing is sure: he didn’t succeed on the first attempt. We baseball fans remember with joy the great “Sultan of Swat” Babe Ruth, who for years held the major league home run record of over 700 round-trippers. (My father actually saw him hit one of those homers.) But what we don’t remember about Babe Ruth is that for every home run he smacked, he struck out twice! In my own life, there have been some resounding victories; but I must tell you I have also struck out any number of times. Bitter losses! Dim paths ending in the swamp lands of life.
A person has to make a decision. Am I going to allow disappointments to earmark my life? Or will I make these “failures” nothing more than iron sharpening iron? See, everyone will have disappointments. They are quite frankly inevitable. But it is how we react to those disappointments that mark us as failures or winners. The champions will make bitter seeds yield fragrant flowers later on even while others will allow those unfortunate days to negatively mark their lives forever. We each make our own call.
I am not a counselor; but I believe some of the best advice I could give a “valley-walker” is this: Get over it! Get on with life. As long as there is still breath in your body, the fight is still on!
Prayer: O God, as I read Your Word, I am struck by the number of times Your great heroes of faith had bitter disappointments. But they overcame those obstacles to win life’s battles for You. Help me in my down times to keep my eyes upon You and continue striving for the prize of my high calling in Christ Jesus. Amen.