A lifetime is not enough to adequately express our gratitude for all God has given us. And knowing this we might feel guilty for the disappointments we still experience. But we can be both blessed and disappointed.
Certainly, we have a lot to be thankful for.
Most of us enjoy fairly good health, a stable job, a warm house to live in, and food to eat. And despite their many quirks, most of us also have family and friends who deeply love and care for us.
And with all that we’ve been blessed with – What’s there to complain about?
We often feel guilty for even suggesting that life occasionally has not turned out as we had hoped.
We don’t want to minimize God’s blessings, and so we try hard not to be disappointed – reminding ourselves things are not as bad as they could be.
But while counting our blessings helps us to keep a proper perspective in life, denying our disappointments does little to foster inner peace.
There’s a restorative quality to peace – making whole what has been broken. And naming disappointments is simply acknowledging that many aspects of our story remain broken and undone.
For example, disappointment that our job, marriage, or sex life is not as we had hoped is recognizing our current lived experiences don’t match our heart’s desires.
And naming this inner discord is often the first step to healing it – to finding peace.
But in no way does this minimize the many ways God has already brought peace and joy into our lives.
They can both exist. We’re grateful for the many ways God has already blessed us AND we’re still disappointed that not everything is as it should be yet.
Be blessed and don’t deny your disappointments. Let them point the way toward deeper healing and peace.
Photo by Comete El Coco on Unsplash
