disappointment

For years I have wanted one of those strawberry pots. I had the fantasy that I could go out and pick a fresh strawberry right on the spot. Add a couple of strawberries to my salad or pancakes or toast and .... mmmmmmm. I decided the time had come to grow my own. I went to the garden center and strutted home with a new hobby.

I wanted to do my very best. I treated that plant like a baby. Each day I would make sure it had the perfect amount of water and picked away any leaf that remotely looked like it had a dead spot on it. Success! Several buds and little berries were in the making. One in particular was proved to be my star strawberry. He raced out to be the biggest and the best. A real show-off. It worked for me. I was excited! Only star treatment for this one. Daily, I tenderly picked it up and made sure it was not touching the soil or resting on any leaf. I even had encouraging pep talks with it. We were in it to win it. (Only I had plans of sinking my teeth into it. But, shhhh.)

That berry slowly turned the brightest red. Perfection was almost at hand. I tried my best to be patient and wait until the perfect timing to eat it. One evening I decided that tomorrow would be the day. Finally!

The next morning I quickly got my workout clothes on and headed out the door for a morning run, fully prepared and excited to pick that strawberry on my way. I opened the door, went to my plant, bent down and discovered this....

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Some critter had also eyed my strawberry. And ate it! I was so disappointed (I talked to that thing for cryin' out loud!). I pouted for the rest of the day. I whined to anyone who would listen to my story. I couldn't even look at strawberries in the grocery store. Disappointment.

While I would never, ever, compare a strawberry to the hard-core disappointments that people experience daily, it did make me think. We all know the tragedy of disappointment. Some also rise up to be bigger than all the rest. People wake up each day and discover a piece of their happiness stolen by disappointment. A phone call telling us that a parent passed away, the doctor's appointment turning into news of cancer, a dad receiving a pink slip, the final foreclosure notice in the mail. People sometimes disappoint us. Finding out the person you were living with is not really the person you knew, your children getting into terrible trouble, people using your emotions for their benefit, people pretending to care about you for their gratification. The list is endless. Disappointment.

What do we do with it? We can be angry and bitter. Blame everyone around us for our disappointment.Whine to anyone who will listen. Let it consume us. That is certainly an option. We could also chose to ignore and avoid the disappointment. Pretend it didn't happen. Out of sight out of mind. Deal with it later. That would be another option.

The option I have found that works best is to look it in the face. Acknowledge it. Then turn to the Lord. Pray about it and tell Him about your disappointment. He wants to listen. He wants to help you know what to do. He is sovereign and His hand is always operating in and through the disappointment. We have to trust Him. With a yielded heart your relationship with Him will grow deeper. He will use this disappointment to produce a more mature life of Christ in us. After all, our heart's desire should be genuine Christlikeness. Use this disappointment to your advantage. Psalm 119:71 "My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees."

Now, back to my silly strawberry. I am still working at it. In the meantime, Kroger has them on sale for $1.88.