Saturday, June 12, 2010

Should We Get Used to Disappointment?

One of my favorite movies from the late 1980's is The Princess Bride. For those of you who don’t know, it's a humorous “fairy tale” about a young woman who is being forced to marry a prince, while her true love does whatever is necessary to keep that from happening. There is a theme of vengeance in the movie, as well as one bad word. So, I would caution allowing children to watch it without the parents. But, for those of you who enjoy a goofy love story, filled with action and adventure, this is the one!

There is a scene in the movie (you can watch it below) where two of the main characters are having a sword fight. In this scene, they meet for the first time and, during the “chatty” fight, they have a conversation that goes like this...

“Who are you?”
“No one of consequence.”
“I must know.”
“Get used to disappointment.”
“Ok.”



The scene usually brings a lot of laughs. However, the last time I watched it (we own the DVD), it got me to thinking about disappointments. As long as we live in this world, we are going to experience them. So, should we just get used to them and not let them bother us at all? That could solve a lot of our problems, couldn’t it? After all, if we were to get used to them, we would be less likely to become discouraged and depressed. So, is that the answer?

No, its not....

While there is something to be said about not letting the “little things” get you down, it is practically impossible for anyone to become so used to disappointment that it will not affect them at all. If it didn’t affect us, we would be heartless and unfeeling robots - not human beings. So, rather than getting used to disappointment, we should instead get used to having the Lord by our side, carrying us through those difficult times.

Through all the ups and downs of life, God is there right along side us. When we are happy, he is happy along with us. When we are disappointed, he is there for us to pour our hearts out to. The key, I would say, to keeping those disappointments from moving us into “the pit of despair,” is not to ignore them, but to trust in the Lord and realize He has our best interests at heart. He is able to take our disappointments and use them as growing experiences while, hopefully, drawing us closer to Himself.

Romans 8:28 - And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (NAS)

Isn't is funny how we can learn something from a goofy love story?
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2 comments:

  1. Vicky I just finished writing my first article. It is about dealing with disappointment. Unfortunately I can not seem to get it to attach to my blog so I am re-typing it. I was working on that last night until I could not keep my eyes open any more. So when I finish re-typing it will be posted to my blog for every one to see.

    It comes out of a time when I had started feeling again after a time of becoming so used to disappontment that I was not noticing anymore. This is an awesome post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I look forward to reading your post, Charity!

    ReplyDelete

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