Have you ever been excited to see a new movie that you’ve been waiting months for to come out? There’s excitement in that moment because of the anticipation of what’s to come. But what about when you get to the theater and find that the movie you wanted to see was sold out- what happens then? Disappointment. Irritation. Maybe even some anger and frustration. All of a sudden your plans changed and now you’re not sure what movie to see or if you even want to see one. This happens in our lives on a day to day basis, plans change and though we might be disappointed we have to roll with it.
I am both a planner and spontaneous person depending on the day and what I’m doing, but usually I like to know what the plan is even if it’s last minute. It makes me feel like I’m in control, but over the past few days I’ve learned very clearly that that is so not the case. Life will throw you curveballs…lots of them. I used to get so bitter and annoyed when things wouldn’t go the way I planned. I didn’t understand why things couldn’t just stay the way they were, but this is where faith and grace came swooping in to save me.
I realized that during the moments where my life seems like it has just been turned upside down I have a choice to make: will I let it bother me, dictate my mood and ruin my day OR will I stand tall, take a deep breath and embrace the situation knowing that God is in control? The second option is a lot harder to do sometimes because of our human tendencies to lean toward frustration, but I’m learning that sometimes our plans need to change. We try to control everything in our lives and have everything planned out, but that’s not when we learn and grow because with that mindset we already think we know everything. Plans have to change to shake us and rebuild us. They have to change so that we could learn and grow from the experience. Uncertainty forces us to rely on something greater than ourselves because when I don’t know what’s going on I can rest in the truth that God already has something amazing planned out for me.
I want to encourage you that when things don’t go your way to take a few moments to yourself to breathe and process the situation before reacting. Sometimes those are blessings in disguise. Sometimes your plans change so that something better can come together. I’m not perfect and I’m sure there will be times when instead of taking my own advice, I will act based off my immediate emotion, but this is something the Lord has been working with me on and wanted to share it. There’s too much negativity in this world and disappointment is inevitable, but if we can change the way we react to those situations and instead learn to embrace them I think we’ll all be a bit happier.
Thanks for taking your time to read this 🙂
All my love,
Melissa
