OVERCOMING FRUSTRATION

Everyone deals with frustration at some point in life. As caregivers, the opportunities to feel frustration are many. Frustration blocks our progress!  Frustration blocks our success!  Frustration blocks our peace!  We can’t really experience the beauty of peace when we’re all tied up and tangled up in frustration and torment!

We feel distressed, stressed, irritated, or annoyed when we’re frustrated.  We can actually feel discomfort, pain, anguish, anxiety, despair, and torment.  We can feel all types of emotions and stress.  Our emotions can run away with us, which is not good for our body, mind, or spirit.  We can respond to frustration in all types of negative ways. Can you relate? When we become frustrated, we can experience some warning signs to caution ourselves about negative talk or behavior.  Let’s talk about a few of them.

DISTORTED

When we get frustrated, our vision can easily become distorted.  We don’t see things the way they really are, but we see things as we think they are.  We see things through the lenses of our perception rather than the way they really are.  Therefore, we’re looking at things or people through our distorted vision. 

When we get frustrated, our hearing can easily become distorted.  We don’t hear things the way they were said.  We tend to hear what we thought was said or what we anticipated hearing. 

DISORIENTED

When we get frustrated, we can become disoriented.  We lose our balance.  We can easily make wrong steps, wrong decisions, wrong statements, and wrong actions.  We can’t tell up from down.  We lose sight of what is right and wrong.  We can find ourselves acting out of delusions and emotions rather than truth and love.  We can say and do things that can destroy relationships or opportunities or cause irreparable damage, where things will never be the same.  We can even cause ourselves damage by walking the wrong way – not walking like Christ.   Even though we’re frustrated and disoriented, there are still consequences for our actions.

DISTRACTED

When we get frustrated, we can easily become distracted.  Our focus is solely on what has been the source of our frustration.  We can become fixated on it.  Oh, we can rehearse it, replay it, talk to it, ponder on it, curse it.  We can become so obsessed with the source of frustration that we can’t focus on or accomplish anything else. 

DISAPPOINTED

When we get frustrated, we can become disappointed beyond words.  We can find ourselves in a state of utter despair, feeling helpless and hopeless.  Our minds can run away with different ideas of how to change the outcome or accomplish the goals, only to talk ourselves out of it with all of the reasons it won’t work.  That keeps us in a negative state of mind.

DISOBEDIENT

When we get frustrated, we can easily slide right into disobedience.  We become disobedient to God’s Word.  We can become disobedient to the Kingdom principles, rules, and guidelines that have been set before us, but we choose to do it our way.  There will be a price to pay for disobedience.

Are these feelings like God?  Are these feelings from God?  Do these feelings serve my purpose in God?  NO!!!  NO!!!  NO!!! Let’s see what the Bible has to say about it. Please read and meditate on the following scriptures.

Scriptures:

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 and Philippians 4:4-9

Application:

• Say a quick prayer: “Lord, help me respond in love.”
• Meditate on these scriptures before confronting someone.
• Write down your frustrations and look for ways to apply love.
• Practice gratitude to shift your focus from aggravation to appreciation.

LOVE AND BLESSINGS!