There are times in life, when no matter how hard you try, things just don’t work out the way you had planned.  Sometimes life throws you a curve and we find it impossible to be happy when things are no good.  Disappointment, adversity, challenge and frustration will come into each of our lives.  The real challenge is not what comes into our lives, but how we handle it.

Life is struggle for a lot of us, but that does not mean that we give up, throw in the towel and quit.  Whenever we have expectations that are not realized, then we are going to face the big ugly monster called disappointment.  We cannot change what has happened, but we can make a choice about how we will respond and it is this choice that makes all the difference.

You are responsible for your feelings and your feelings are responsible for how you respond to the situations and circumstances of life.  In the negative situations of life you have to make a choice about what you are going to focus on.  Make the wrong choice and you are doomed for even more negative situations.  Make the right choice and you can use the disappointments of life to move you to a more positive, better and productive place of living.

Here are some steps that you can take to get on and stay on the right track:

1.  Realize That You Are Responsible For Your Own Feelings!  The easy path is to blame others, but there is nothing to gain here.  Be responsible for your feelings.  We waste too much time and energy playing the blame game and that is exactly what it is – a game.  Disappointments come and go, but their power to impact you in a negative or positive way are up to you and your willingness to be responsible what you feel.  Own your feelings and you have the power to change them!

2.  Ask Yourself The Important Questions!  If you will ask the right questions and answer them in the right way, then you are own your way to a turn-around!  Here are a few to get you started:  What opportunity is there in this situation to make a change in my life for the better?  What blessings has God blessed me with that can help me through this?  What will I do to change things?  Ask and answer these questions and you are on your way to putting together a plan that will take you to some amazing places.

3.  Believe In Purpose!  You were not an accident, your life is not an accident and the things that happen to you are not an accident.  Everything has a purpose, and it does not matter if you want it to or not.  The only choice you have is this:  Will that purpose be negative or positive?  Understand and believe that whatever happens in your life – good or bad, is for the purpose of helping you accomplish what you were created for.  Believe this and you are heading in a very positive and powerful direction.

4.  Live With Higher Power!  We try to do life on our own.  We know that there is a Creator, but we try to live life without any real connection.  The connection to our Creator is vital to our experiencing victory and success.  Take time to meditate, pray, read and think about and grow this relationship, because we are nothing without it!

5.  Help Others And Let Them Help You!  Not everyone is out to use you or burn you.  There really are people in this world that want to help you and they are not looking for anything in return.  People love and care, because that is the way they were created.  Make sure that you are loving and caring for others and allowing others to love and care for you.  Pretend does you no good here, so work hard at getting this right!

Life may not be working out the way you had hoped or planned, but hang in there and keep taking the steps and before you know it, you will have walked out of your negative situation, into a positive one and claimed one of the greatest gifts of all – the gift of positive victory, regardless of life’s circumstances.  And by the way – this is what you were created for!

Life is hard and we all know what it is like to feel pain.  At some point in your life, you are going to be faced with a hurt that you don’t know what to do with.  When that hurt comes knocking at your door, it is important to remember what to remember!  Here are ten things to remember:

1. God Is In Control!  You may not understand, but you don’t have to understand.  The important thing is that you believe.  Faith unlocks the door for the supernatural power of God to flow into and through your situation.

2.  Something Better Is Coming!  When we are hurt, it is almost impossible for us to think about that something better is coming, but there is always another miracle waiting for us just around the corner.

3.  There Is A Purpose!  We don’t know why, but there is a reason.  God does not make bad things happen, but He does sometimes allow bad things to happen.  When we are hurt, we have a perfect opportunity to decide if we are going to trust Him or not.

4.  You Are Loved!  God loves you and you have family and friends that love you.  When we are hurt, the love of others seems far away or non-existent, but it is there.  We just can’t see it or we will not allow ourselves to experience it.

5.  God Is There!  You may not see Him, hear Him or feel Him, but He is there.  God is everywhere at all times and when you are hurting, He is with you.  Make sure that you look for him, listen for him and you will eventually feel the comfort of His touch.

6.  You Are Not Alone!  It may seem that you are all alone, but you are never alone.  God is always with you and often other people are with you too.  We often fail to realize who and what we have, until it’s too late.

7.  Prayer Is Powerful!  We often pray as a last resort.  When we are hurting, we need to make sure that we are working to stay in constant communication with God.  You may not have any idea what to say and that is okay.  Just take some time to talk with God and make sure that you are listening, because He will speak.

8.  This May Be New to You, But It’s Not New!  When we are hurting, we may be experiencing something that we have never experienced before.  Just because we have not experienced the hurt, does not mean that it’s new.  The truth is this:  Others have experienced it and survived and you will too.

9.  Others Are Hurting Too!  A lot of times when we are hurting, we are totally oblivious that there is anyone else in the world.  The reality of life is that other people are hurting too and it may be that you are the very one to help someone through their hurt, so pay attention.

10.  There Is Stuff Worth Remembering!  These are just a few of the things that we need to remember when we are hurting.  When life begins to hit you with hurts that seem to be taking you down for the count, remember what to remember and be amazed at the healing that begins to take place.

Lord, I pray for my friends that are hurting today.  Please be with them and help them to remember what to remember, so that they might experience your healing and move from hurt to happiness as they trust in You…

Even when you don’t know it or understand it, God is leading you.  What a wonderful and beautiful thought.  A friend of mine was out walking one morning and she began to sing this song.  Later when she got home, she posted a link to a video of the song and it reminded me of one of my favorite hymns.

Here are the lyrics to “He Leadeth Me”

He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,
E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

The words were written by Joseph H. Gilmore and put to music by William B. Bradbury.  Read here as Gilmore tells the story in his own words:

“As a young man who re­cent­ly had been grad­u­at­ed from Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty and New­ton The­o­lo­gic­al In­sti­tu­tion, I was sup­ply­ing for a cou­ple of Sun­days the pul­pit of the First Bap­tist Church in Phil­a­del­phia [Penn­syl­van­ia]. At the mid-week ser­vice, on the 26th of March, 1862, I set out to give the peo­ple an ex­po­si­tion of the Twen­ty-third Psalm, which I had giv­en be­fore on three or four oc­ca­sions, but this time I did not get fur­ther than the words “He Lead­eth Me.” Those words took hold of me as they had ne­ver done be­fore, and I saw them in a sig­ni­fi­cance and won­drous beau­ty of which I had ne­ver dreamed.

It was the dark­est hour of the Ci­vil War. I did not re­fer to that fact—that is, I don’t think I did—but it may sub­con­sciou­sly have led me to real­ize that God’s lead­er­ship is the one sig­nif­i­cant fact in hu­man ex­per­i­ence, that it makes no dif­fer­ence how we are led, or whi­ther we are led, so long as we are sure God is lead­ing us.

At the close of the meet­ing a few of us in the par­lor of my host, good Dea­con Watt­son, kept on talk­ing about the thought which I had em­pha­sized; and then and there, on a blank page of the brief from which I had in­tend­ed to speak, I pen­ciled the hymn, talk­ing and writ­ing at the same time, then hand­ed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watch­man and Re­flect­or, a pa­per pub­lished in Bos­ton, where it was first print­ed. I did not know un­til 1865 that my hymn had been set to mu­sic by Will­iam B. Brad­bu­ry. I went to Ro­ches­ter [New York] to preach as a can­di­date be­fore the Se­cond Bap­tist Church. Go­ing in­to their cha­pel on ar­riv­al in the ci­ty, I picked up a hymn­al to see what they were sing­ing, and opened it at my own hymn, “He Lead­eth Me.”

Of course, Gilmore went on to serve as the Pastor there and had a great ministry proving the words of the song true!

Psalms 23:3 says:  “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”  You may not see it, believe it or understand it, but God is leading you and that makes all the difference!