It is a choice. . .

I came across a great quote sometime ago and it really hit me hard personally – and unfortunately, I could not recall where I got it from.

“Disappointments are inevitable BUT discouragement is a choice.”

How about you? Have you realized that when we are discouraged, we have already made that choice to be as such?

Be Still My Soul. . .

Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side.
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide,
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul, thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake.
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Music by Jean Sibelius, 1899
(Originally Composed as Finlandia)
Lyrics by Katharina von Schlegel, 1752

When the answer to your dream is a “not yet”…

Most everyone would say that waiting is the most difficult part of dreaming. Waiting. The time that exists between doing what you need to do in order to realize a dream and the actual realization of that dream. Sometimes it could take days, years… and even perhaps a lifetime.

When dreams are on hold for you – it could be a very interesting time.  Will you be discouraged? Will you keep on hoping for it? Or will you simply just banish it away from your heart because the waiting is difficult to handle?

What are the things in your life that are on hold?

Maybe someone you know needs healing and it seems as if nothing is happening to the prayers being said.

Maybe you are waiting for that job that you had been preparing for, yet you have not heard a word.

Maybe you are waiting for someone to say “I love you back” – yet the person is living her life oblivious to your pain.

Maybe you are waiting for someone to come home. Or maybe you are waiting to be called home and be embraced by your loved ones.

The waiting time could be a special time as well. A time to breathe deeply in surrender to the One who could give that dream to you at the most opportune time.

Take heart. God’s not yet – may perhaps turn into a God’s Yes… right before your eyes.

Psalm 40: 1 – 4 A Psalm of David.

I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. 3 And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear, And will trust in the LORD. 4 How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.