Disappointments are a crazy thing to handle. We can be disappointed by friends, by non-friends, circumstances, our own faults, and even by what we expect from God. We can be disappointed by a judgment we made about the abilities of someone - and discovered that we were wrong. I'm not wild about being wrong. I'm not wild about being disappointed. I was thinking about this over the past year when events showed that I had made a wrong judgment about someone - qualities I believed they had - a conviction that we had shared values - and a whole plethora of other things.
Here is a gathering or different meanings of disappointment - all can apply:
I tend to be fiercely loyal. The downside is that being fiercely loyal can lead to great disappointments. I have worked in a few different jobs where I had to make decisions about many people. In hindsight, my batting average on people's ability was rather good, but not perfect. It really upsets me when I made a wrong judgment about a person. I was never comforted by the inane accurate phrase that no one is perfect. That might be true, but what about the damage that might have been done. I have tried, when possible, to mitigate any damage that might have come from a wrong decision. Sometimes, it is not an easy thing to rectify. Over time, I did try to look realistically - and certainly some decisions made are judgment calls - no perfect solution. Because I am a worrier and brooder, I would often blame myself if it appeared that a decision was wrong. That's just me, but given my sense of justice, I would always try to change the situation going into the future - sometimes successful, sometimes not. I would often keep repeating to myself the organizational maxim - there are no perfect solutions to practical problems. That might be true, but it never brought me piece of mind.
The causes for disappointment do concern me. The wisdom in the photo below is always something worthwhile to think about.
Making decisions is a part of life that most people face. It hurts when I have been wrong. I don't take some moments lightly, but always resolve to improve my skills, work on my judgment, and do better the next time confronted with such a situation. This might be a reason why I have spent so much time in my life on self-improvement methods. As one observant wise 0friend said to me about the efforts I made in so many areas for self-improvement, "you should see if you can get a refund on some of those things."
We are each accountable to God for many of the decisions which we have made. This is why I am truly comforted (even for a little while) by this maxim about saints: "saints are sinners who keep trying." So I clearly am a sinner! Want to make something of it?