“Disappointments are inevitable, discouragement is a choice”.
That quote was heavy on my mind, as I navigated the truck from Columbia back to Loganville. As I worked my way through the Kubler-Ross Model, I admit that I lingered on step 2 for quite a while.
Throughout my life, I’ve kept so many sayings, quotes, and stories that I often lose attribution, who said that?
What I have learned in the past shapes the person I will be in the future, so it is in these crossroad moments of disappointment, that I make choices to heed the learnings or ignore the learnings. My capacity for “breaking bad” is high.
Finally, I confronted step 4 and that saying popped in my mind: “Disappointments are inevitable, discouragement is a choice”. The choice was obvious for me: I won’t get discouraged.
This morning I googled the saying to get who said it. Wow #20!. The bread cast out over the waters has come back.
In my bible study this morning, a Spurgeon devotional:
When we sail in Christ’s company, we may not make sure of fair weather, for great storms may toss the vessel which carries the Lord himself, and we must not expect to find the sea less boisterous around our little boat. If we go with Jesus we must be content to fare as he fares; and when the waves are rough to him, they will be rough to us. It is by tempest and tossing that we shall come to land, as he did before us.- Spurgeon
And now I have another story in my head, waiting to console me, at the next inevitable disappointment.