Diary of a Writer: Break Off Disappointment! You Are Appointed.

This time last week, I was arriving home from 12 days on the road.

I’d been to a meeting at my publishers, then to teach at a writers retreat followed by teaching and speaking at a writers conference.

I had a blast. Lived in grace. But I was glad to be home to my hubby and puppy.

But this week, I crashed a bit. Some things happened, observations made and I felt… disappointed.

It really sank in when I read a two-star review of Once Upon A Prince on Goodreads. The reviewer gave a detailed review, but she didn’t seem to get what I was trying to do.

Or, I didn’t convey some part of the story well. And FYI everyone, I didn’t watched the Prince & Me until I started the book and only to make sure I didn’t mimic the movie.

I wasn’t going for a Prince & Me reduex.

Goodreads can a brutal review site.

One Dining with Joy review went like this, “I didn’t have time to read this book so I gave it to my friend to read and she said it was horrible. The dialog was awful.”

Br-rrutal. And dialog is my strength. Or so I believe. Authors have a heart you know. We bleed when cut. It’s too much to bear at times, to read reviews of our babies.

So, I’ll confess, I was feeling… disappointed. Losing heart. Contemplating… quitting.

But If I don’t write, what would I do?

On my way to church this morning, the Holy Spirit tapped my heart. Disappointed is to lose sight of being “appointed.”

Jesus said this, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” John 15:16

Hebrews 3: 1-2 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of ourconfession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.”

God appoints us to our destiny. He appoints us to bear fruit. To good things. To a life abundant — John 10:10.

When we are disappointed, we lose connection with God’s appointment for our hearts, for our lives and the hope we have in Him is broken.

We have to break off disappointment, fight it, and boy, does it like to settle in, settle down, and settle on.

We must choose God’s appointment for us.

We have to verbally, prayfully, mindfully agree with God’s Word and truth. It doesn’t matter how we feel, it matter what He says.

The writer’s life is full of highs and lows, and many mundane days in between. It’s easy to give into disappointment.

But those things don’t matter. What matters is what the Lord’s appointment! We must agree with Him. Not our situation. Our emotions. Not the past.

But here’s where disappointment says, “You know I’m right.” Our past, our track record, all the hope deferred, the disappointment upon disappointment life dealt our way, and we begin to believe more in “it” than in the truth.

If in the past, you never got the raise why should you get one in the future? If your finances are a mess, why should they get straightened out this time?

We all have those lists. I know I do… did. Working on tearing it up. A past disappointment was sinking me.

Thank goodness for my hubby and the amazing Susan May Warren for kicking me back into play.

And for the ever loving, ever present Holy Spirit who tapped my heart and said, “You are appointed.”

And so are you! Break off disappointment. Believe what God says about you!

Do you have any testimonies of God turning disappointment into joy? Success?