The 3 P's: overcoming disappointment

One day, when my friend’s young son was in a pre-kindergarten class, he was caught dripping wet after putting his head in the toilet. The teacher asked Billy, “Why did you stick your head in the toilet?” Billy replied, “I don't know, but I didn't drink any."

In about a month from now, this could be you, except instead of sticking your head in the toilet, the question would be, “Why did you buy the health club membership?” Your response may be, “I don’t know, but I didn’t know I had to actually go there.”

Getting healthy is the most common New Year’s resolution.  Although it is a worthy one, I believe it would greatly benefit us to make a vow to get emotionally healthy as well. To re-direct and re-focus in 2011!

We tend to expend a lot of energy and time in our cave of self-pity, because of disappointments, though most of our disappointments are due to our own “projected expectations.”  Projected expectations are when you project what you think someone should say or do, or when you expect a situation to be how you imagined. When these expectations are not met, disappointment enters.

To dig out of the disappointment cave, which usually has discouragement and depression as visitors, let’s make 2011 the year we begin using the Three P’s.

Praise, Prayer, and Press On.

Praise
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
It is easy to praise God when everything is going great; it is when you don’t feel like your circumstance is something to be thankful for that you typically don’t praise God.  Scriptures tell us to “give thanks in all circumstances.”   Praise is powerful. By praising in all circumstances hearts change, attitudes change, lives change.  Read 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, to see the power of praising.

Prayer
If Jesus was convinced that his own life and ministry depended upon prayer, shouldn’t we set time apart for prayer with our Lord? Pray for your thoughts to be His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8)

Press On
In Philippians 3, Paul gives a pep talk to the Christians at Philippi. He explains that his goal is to know Christ, to be like Christ, and to be all that Christ intends for him to be. This goal consumes all of Paul’s energy and should ours as well.
We should stay away from anything that is harmful and be aware of what distracts us from being effective Christians. Do our activities strengthen us for the race or drain us and hold us back?

Make your goal for 2011 to re-direct and re-focus by using the Three P’s.

—Tanya Magnus
Tanya is the founder of Choose to Soar Ministries.  She is also the author of “Broken Warriors: A journey to renewal and restoration”, a successful bible instructor, trainer, speaker and communicator. www.ChooseToSoar.net