Frustration

Breaking news: “You are not the only one who gets frustrated.”

Frustration is a little child who has beaten on a locked door until exhausted and finally sits down and cries. Have you been there?  Sure, all of us have been.

When that which promises to be exhilarating proves to be exasperating, we end up frustrated.

Webster defines frustration as “a deep chronic sense of insecurity arising from unresolved problems.”

You know that from your own experience. It is when you want something or want to do something real badly and things happen that just step in your way and shout “NOT.”

You have seen it, or perhaps you have been the one seen, whose plans are frustrated and you go ballistic.

Youth experience it when they get all jacked up and life kicks out the jack, causing a big letdown.

Frustration is Moses coming to a much-needed spring of water and finding it dry, starts beating on the rock with his rod.

It is John who gets fed up with the opposition and asks Jesus to call down fire from heaven on them.

Do you ever feel as frustrated as the fellow who bought a new boomerang and had trouble throwing the old one away?

We cause our frustrations because of what and how we think… Solomon wisely wrote: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

When you feel your frustration building there is an escape valve, a release point: “Cast your burden on the Lord and He shall sustain you…” (Psalms 55:22). 

You can express frustrations to the Lord. He cares for you. Talk to Him about it as though He doesn’t know about it. The good news is not only does He know about it, He knows what to do about it.

In the event your frustration is caused by a person or persons Dale Carnegie offers this advice: “Stop a minute to contrast your keen interest in your own affairs with your mild concerns about anything else. Realize then, that everybody else in the world feels exactly the same way! Then… you will have grasped the only solid foundation for interpersonal relationships; namely, that success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other person’s viewpoint.”

That is a friendly reminder that everyone, everyone, has a load to carry. Perhaps the person by whom you are being frustrated is doing so because of their own covert frustration. Therefore, if you respond in a negative or critical way you are only compounding the problem. You can ameliorate their and your own frustration by acts and/or expressions of grace. “In honor preferring one another.” (Romans 12:10)

Jesus offered this coping concept, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” (Matt. 7:12)