“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12
Yesterday I didn’t post. I tried to. I even sat down at 10 p.m. to write instead of going to sleep. The facts are that life isn’t
always rosy and sweet. How do you recover when your hopes come crashing down.
Right now we are desperately dreaming of buying a house.
Yesterday we went in to get pre-approved for a loan. We were looking at a cute little manufactured home that had been foreclosed on. It needs a lot of work, but the price is half of what everything around it is going for.
I got my hopes up. Maybe we will be in a house by this summer. Then they came crashing down, and fell down three flights of stairs when I learned about some new lending rules that make “affordable” (manufactured) housing difficult to buy and sell.
In our area, the lowest price non-manufactured home is listed for almost $250,000! My heart sinks just thinking about that, but this isn’t a post about our quest to buy a house.
How do you move past a huge disappointment?
1. Take time to mourn.
Disappointment is really mourning a dream. While I haven’t completely given up hope of owning a house in this area, current prices are prohibitive. We probably won’t be buying nearly as soon as we had dreamed of, and being sad about hope deferred is okay as long as I don’t get stuck in the disappointment.
2. Focus on living for today
When I face disappointment, I often feel less satisfied with my life as it is right now. I constantly struggle to find balance between enjoying life today and looking forward to tomorrow. Ask yourself, “What can I do today?” I’ve decided to do some more rearranging and decluttering to make more living space in our small apartment.
3. Don’t give up hope
I have to take life one day at a time, and keep on working towards those dreams and goals. My hope rests in knowing that God has a plan for us, and living in His will is the best possible place we can ever be on this earth.
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Thanks for participating in this week’s The Seventh Day blog carnival, which is now live at On the Horizon.
Your post is a wonderful addition to the Carnival and one that I am going to continue considering.
A note for your readers: You can submit one post to the Carnival from each of your blogs per week. The post must have been originally published during the prior week. So, for instance, anything you publish between January 19 (yesterday) and next Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific time (not the time change) is eligible to be included in next Sunday’s edition of the Carnival (Sunday, January 27, 2008).
I hope you will participate again in the future!! And I hope to receive some submissions from your readers, as well.