Disappointment

God desires to show His power through your storm, but is your lack of faith keeping Him from doing so? God brings storms into your life to show His strength and to gain glory from His providence.  Paul Chappell

How do you handle disappointment?  Do you face it head on or do you run?  Do you get angry when something disappoints you? 

This weekend we did a show in Ennis, Texas called the Bluebonnet Festival.  As you can imagine there were a lot of bluebonnets and it is the state flower so why not celebrate it. 

Anyway, we were in Ennis for 2 days with our booth.  If you live in Texas you know that if you wait long enough the weather will change.  Sometimes that change is bad to worse and other times it is good to great and it can all happen in one day.  That is the beauty of our Texas climate.  It’s always a surprise.

Did I mention this is an outdoor show so you set your tent up outside?  So we set up our tent Friday evening and then went to the hotel.  We had a beautiful day on Saturday.  We put the sides on our tent Saturday evening and went to dinner and then back to the hotel.  My husband started texting me around 8:00pm telling me a storm was headed our way.  So I turned on the news and sure enough there was this big red line of thunderstorms with 70 mph winds headed our way.  As I looked out the hotel window the wind and rain were blowing sideways and there were waves in the pool below our window. 

Sunday morning we got up early and decided to go check on our tent.  We drove up to the event location and everything looked great until we got to our tent.  Our tables that had been set up Saturday with all of our products were turned over and our products were all over the ground.  We had broken diffusers, candles and body butters had lost their lids and dumped on the ground.  The top on our tent was blown off and the frame of the tent was bent and broken.  We had sachets sitting in containers filled with water, our table cloths were wet and on the ground.  Our cash register was upside down on the brick street and lavender essential oil bottles, lotions, diffusers and other products were scattered all over. 

I will never forget the feeling of disappointment when I looked at tent after tent that were perfectly fine and then getting to our tent and seeing total devastation.  It gave me a small glimpse into what people go through when a tornado goes through their town and blows down your house and everything in it. 

We had several vendors nearby who were standing looking at our tent or what was left of it.  It was really crazy because one tent on one side of us was turned over and all their tables were overturned, but the tent on the other side of us was perfectly fine with nothing out of place. 

We stood there in shock for a few minutes.  Some of the vendors came over and expressed how sorry they were that our stuff was damaged.  Mom, Dad and I stood there for a few minutes and then we started the cleanup.  We pulled a big trash container over and started tossing the broken items and stacking everything that was not damaged and setting aside things that could be salvaged. 

We started packing things on our trailer and then I looked over at Mom and Dad and I said, “Why don’t we stay.  We still have today for this event.  We can set up our tables and just sit the open plastic containers on the tables and sell out of them. We can have a storm sale for all the items that have damaged labels and everything that was not damaged that had been in plastic containers can still be sold”.  We decided to stay.

We had a choice in how we handled our disappointment.  My sister and I talked later that evening and she said, “You know Bren, sometimes God allows things to happen to us to teach us something.  Other times he allows it so that we can show others who God is by how we respond to tragedy.”  If we understand that we live in a fallen world, we will realize that bad things are going to happen to all of us at one time or another.  How we handle the tragedies and disappointments in life can give others a glimpse of who God is.

We were so blessed this weekend.  The vendor next to us who lost her tent decided to stay too when she heard we were going to stay.  Another vendor on the other side of the event came up to us and offered to loan us his extra tent and he came and helped us set it up over our tables so we wouldn’t be standing in the sun all day.  He even brought us weights and helped us tie the tent down.  We had to go back to our hotel to check out, so the vendors on both sides of us watched our products for us while we were gone. 

 

How we handle the disappointments in life can show others a God who is always there.  We sold all but 4 items in our storm sale and we made almost as much as we had the previous day.  God blesses us when we least expect it.  Don’t underestimate God when you are experiencing disappointment in life.  He may be trying to help you learn something about Him through the experience, or show someone else who He is by how we react to the disappointments in life.    

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, You are an amazing Father who cares for us especially when we are going through the disappointments in life.  You blessed us this weekend when we experienced disappointment.  If we have the right attitude and have a close relationship with You, we can make lemonade out of lemons in any situation.  Thank You for bringing the storm into our lives, because it gave me an appreciation for how You can redeem any situation and our attitude plays a big part in showing others who You really are.      

      

Scripture: Wind and Wave Obey Jesus

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  Matthew 8:23-27