aRe yoU losing sleep over expectations not met?
Tired of the results in your life, church, community and nation?
Overwhelmed by the loss in your business, career, marriage, health or finances?
Frustrated at work by what you do, what you earn and who you work with?
Losing hope of catching up with those gone ahead of you?
You are neither alone nor unreasonable!
Many people are not very satisfied by with their progress reports. It could be the level of progress in their careers, finances, business, parenting, physical fitness, finding a suitable marriage partner or raising a family. Whatever it is, we just want to conquer more teritories and advance. The situation gets really frustrating when we compare ourselves to people we started with or even worse, people who started after us but have gone ahead. This makes us sink low and sigh: “I deserve more than this” Quite frankly, you may have good reasons to feel the way you do. No one likes to be behind; I don’t.
But here is what we do not often give a serious thought:
Our source of frustration or lack of satisfaction is not necessarily the situation we are in but the comparisons of our situation and the situations of our friends, neighbours, or co-workers.
Three examples from Scriptures prove this standpoint:
a. Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:3-6)
These two brothers brought offering to God. God accepted Abel’s but did not accept Cain’s because of Cain;s attitude. Cain got upset and murdered his brother, Abel. Do you think Cain was necessarily unhappy because he got poor results or because Abel got better results than he did? Think about it, if both Cain and Abel had had the same poor results would Cain have been frustrated? I don’t think so; not as much as killing his brother. Cain’s real source of frustration then was not the situation itself but the comparison of his situation and that of his brother’s
b. Two Nursing Mothers and King Solomon (1Kings 3:16-27)
Two nursing mothers had a dispute over a dead child and came to King Solomon for resolution. One woman argued that her son was alive and that her rival’s son was dead. The other woman insisted that the dead son was her rivals and hers was alive. Then Solomon said ‘let’s divide the living son into two and give half to each of you”. The woman whose son was dead quickly agreed, “yes, neither you nor I will have him. Cut him in two” (1Kings 3:26). This statement revealed that the woman whose son was dead was not just frustrated because her son died but because her mate’s son was alive whereas her was dead. With this attitude, of course, it was easy for the King to know the true mother. People are not frustrated about their failures but about the successes of other people.
c. The Vineyard Workers (Matt 20:1-16)
Two sets of workers: those who worked twelve hours and those who worked 1 hour. The interesting thing is that the vineyard owner decided to pay everyone the same wages. The first set got upset about this equality because they expected to receive more. But just what was their expectation based on? Certainly not on the contract for they had agreed to accept a denarius a day. The landowner had to ask them: did you not agree to receive a denarius a day or are you envious because I am generous? Take what is your and go away. Had the first set of workers not seen what the second group earned, they would have gone home happy with what they had.
From these three examples, we may conclude that our real source of frustration or lack of satisfaction is not the situation itself but the comparisons of our situations and the situations of other people.
Start your journey from discouragement to fufilment today by counting your own blessings; not the blessings of other people!
Truth is, inequality is a fact of life. There will always be the rich and the poor. You will get ahead of some, some will get ahead of you. But who says those who have gone ahead of you today will forever be ahead? God can thrust further in your career, marriage, business and life in one hour than others have accomplished in eleven years!
Don’t freak yourself out because God has been generous to others. Count your own blessings. God’s generosity to others does not in any way reduce God’s generosity to you. Besides, have you realized that some of your blessings are prayer points for some other people? All you have now is all you need now. Where you are now is where you ought to be now. The cure for envy, strife, fights and breakups is counting our own blessings. Unrealistic expectation leads to frustration and frustrations eat up the bones. That’s not God’s will for us.
I love the lyrics:
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed.
When you are discouraged thinking all the time.
Count your many blessings name them one by one
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Does counting our own blessings mean we should not aim high or be satisfied with status quo? Not at all! We need a measure of discontentment to make progress in life. We must constantly shoot for greater heights. Counting your own blessings means, we must not continue to live in discouragement because of what others have which we do not have. We must not allow our desires, hopes, dreams of tomorrow rob us of the beauty of today and the fulfilment that comes from little achievements. You certainly are not where you used to be. Like Joyce Meyer puts it, keep enjoying everyday life on your way to where you are going.
You will succeed!
@Solidrock
We Enjoy the moment. Come!
