Learn from your disappointments and failures and with God's help seek to overcome them. Ask yourself, could I have done anything to prevent this? Were my hopes and dreams unrealistic, or were my motives wrong? Is there a new path God wants me to explore?

While disappointment and failure aren't identical, they often occur together, and both can hold us back from God's best for our lives.

God promises no easy life or days without troubles, trials, difficulties, and temptations. He never promises that life will be perfect. He does not call His children to a playground, but to a battleground.

It often takes a tragedy to open our hearts, minds, and wills to the truth of God's Word.

Put God to the test when troubles come. He won't let you down. In the midst of a painful illness, Paul begged God to intervene and take it away. But God replied, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9). It was sufficient for Paul, and it will be for you.

The time to prepare for life's disappointments and hurts is in advance.

Disappointments are part of life; we can't always have our own way, and we need to learn to separate what is significant from what is merely annoying. Only in heaven will we be free of all disappointments and failures. A friend of mine says, "Oh well, a hundred years from now it won't make any difference!

True faith and suffering frequently go hand-in-hand . . .Living for Christ, walking in His way, will not be an easy path.

We don't deliberately look for trouble in life. It comes. Suffering is a universal fact; no one can escape its claws.

When one bears suffering faithfully, God is glorified and honored.

Suffering can give us opportunities to witness. The world is a gigantic hospital; nowhere is there a greater chance to see the peace and joy of the Lord than when the journey through the valley is the darkest.

The Bible teaches that we are to be patient in suffering. Tears become telescopes to heaven, bringing eternity a little closer.