Illustration results for Frustration
Staff Picks of the Week:
Memorial Day 2013
Memorial Day 2013 Preaching Bundle »
Greater Love Video Illustration »
Everlasting God Worship Music Video »
Sabbath
Sabbath Preaching Bundle »
1 Outta 7 Video Illustration »
Before The Throne… Worship Music Video »
There’s an old story of a man who was walking at night, and saw another man searching for something near a lamp post. Approaching, he asked the man what he was looking for, and the man, without looking up, replied, “My watch”. The first man asked, “Well, precisely where were you standing when you dropped it?” Continuing his search, the man pointed a finger in the distance and said, “Over there somewhere.” Incredulous, the first man said, “Well then sir, why are you looking for it here?” Finally looking up in frustration and meeting the first man’s gaze, the searcher replied testily, “Because sir, the light is better here!”
Richard Crow
The late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Holmes was on a train when the conductor came through collecting tickets. Holmes couldn’t find his ticket and became rather distraught. The conductor tried to console him by saying, "Mr. Holmes, don’t worry. When you find your ticket, just mail it in. We trust you." Mr. Holmes responded in frustration, "My dear man, that’s not my problem. I need my ticket to tell me where I’m going."
Marriage License: A Learner’s Permit
It’s a wise groom who has to be dragged to the altar. He knows what love is. It’s death. If lovers don’t know this, they are headed for trouble. Never will you have your way again. You can’t be happy if this other person isn’t. No matter who wins the argument, you lose. Always. The sooner you learn this the better off you will be.
Love is an exercise in frustration. You leave the window up when you want it down. You watch someone else’s favorite TV program. You kiss when you have a headache. You turn the music down when you like it loud. You learn to be patient without sighing or sulking.
Love’s doing things for the other person. In marriage two become one but the one isn’t you. It’s the other person. You love this person more than you love yourself. This means that you love this person as she or he is. Acceptance. We ask ourselves frankly what that impulse is that makes us want to redesign a person. It isn’t love. We want the other person to be normal like us. But is that loving the other person or ourselves? Love brings out the best in people. They can be themselves without artificiality. People who know they are loved glow with beauty and charm.
Love is funny. Its growth doesn’t depend on what someone does for you. It’s in direct proportion to what you do for him or her.
“Men are from Mars...”, Part 3 - Ephesians 5:23,24”, Countdown! Golden Minutes Ministries Newsletter, (Long Beach, CA, October 1996).
The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me into deep depression.
It hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy, for activities sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task, I will never get it all done,
For my ideal is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines,
My in...
MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was so old she didn’t remember any more. Melanie said, "If you don’t remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six."
BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a pain killer. She tried in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a child-proof cap and she’d have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: "How does it know it’s me?"
A Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... This particular Sunday sermon..."Dear Lord," the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. "Without you, we are but dust..." He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite
audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, "Mom, what is butt dust?"
A gentleman from my church told a story about his family. Each day as he came home from work, he stopped on his way into his house to pet his dog, and give it some affection. One day as he came in the house, his wife said with a little frustration, "Why is it that every day you always pet the dog and talk to the dog, but you never seem that happy to see your own wife and kids!? You spend several minutes with the dog, but you barely say anything to us." The man grumbled, "Well, you never seem that happy to see me either! But the dog is always glad to see me. She runs to me, puts on a happy face, and wags her tail when I pet her." The man didn’t think much more about their conversation until the next day when he came home from work. As he walked through the front door, to his surprise, there were his wife and daughter, down on all fours, smiling at him and wagging their "tails". He remarked, "If I can make time to pet my dog and let her know I’m glad to see her, I can surely do a better job of letting my wife and kids know how much I love them. We can all decide what kind of attitude we will have in the way we treat our families."
A volunteer fire department was fighting the blaze engulfing Julia Campbell cousin’s barn. As he watched, he dialed his insurance company on his portable phone, but there was no answer. “How come my agent is never there when I need him?” he asked in frustration.
One of the firefighters tapped him on the shoulder. “That’s because I’m right here, putting out the fire,” responded the agent.
The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me into deep depression.
It hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy, for activities sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task, I will never get it all done,
For my ideal is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines,
My in-basket overflows.
Surely fatigue and time pressures shall follow me<...
Philip Yancey writes in his book, Prayer, that
“… Keeping company with God also includes expressing the times of trial and frustration. In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye keeps up a running dialogue with God, giving credit for the good things but also lamenting all that goes wrong.
In one scene he sits dejected by the side of the road with his lame horse.
“I can understand it,” he says to God, “when you punish me when I am bad; or my wife because she talks too much; or my daughter because she wants to go off and marry a Gentile, but … What have you got against my horse?!”
JOB: STOP, LORD!
My grandson, who is almost 4, wants to play Spiderman, and his mother is more interested in him eating his evening meal. A conflict is arising and voices are raised while mouthfuls of food are being intentionally shovelled into my grandson's mouth. He is in a situation he doesn't like, and so he complains and argues his case before his mother in between the mouthfuls and sometimes during.
To stall things he says with a whining voice in frustration, "I don't like those red things!" referring to the carrots. "Well move them aside and eat the rest" says an equally frustrated Mother. "No Mum!" My grandson has just about raised his voice of complaint to the point of exasperating his mother with his disobedience.
He knows that in a while he will be in big trouble! He does not want to hear his Mother being angry with him and just as he is asked to go to the laundry and shut the door, half way through his mothers sentence he interrupts. He is not willing to hear those words and before she is finished saying them, he says in a loud voice "STOP, MUM!" His reasoning is if his Mum stops everything she is about to say, then he will have time to explain his case further.
Ever feel that way with God - "Lord just stop everything that is happening so that I can have time to think how I can pray? I need time out!"
Job has decided that the only thing he can do is come to God. He says to God in effect "Stop Lord! If you just give me a little parole from my pain, I would be able to pray to You and present to you my side of things". Unlike my grandson, Job is not being disobedient. He just wants relief while he prays. His actual words are in Job 13:20-22 (NLT) "O God, grant me these two things, and then I will be able to face You. Remove Your heavy Hand from me, and don't terrify me with Your awesome presence. Now summon me, and I will answer! Or let me speak to You, and You reply."
