Frustration. It happens in everyone’s life. It upsets us, causes stress, anxiety, and at times anger. But really, frustration can be beneficial.

As pain is the body’s way of telling you there is a problem, frustration also tells us there is a problem. It warns us that something is not right and needs to be corrected.

I’ve always hated frustration. Seriously. I hate it. I hate how it makes me feel and the inability to change the things that frustrate me.

Today, however, I was thinking about the power of frustration and was hit with the reality that frustration does not deserve the final say. What if we started looking differently at frustration? What if we started trying to get to the root of what caused the frustration.

When we discover that, we need to ask more questions. A good place to start is with this one: “What needs to change here for this situation not to frustrate me? Planning? Communication? My attitude? Their attitude? What?”

After we have the root problem figured out, then ask ourselves, “Can this be changed? Can I change it?”

There is so much that could be unpacked with this topic of frustration. Too much to get out in a single blog but I hope it gets you thinking about the situations, and people, that cause you frustration.

I truly believe that frustration is God’s way of bringing our attention to a matter within ourselves or the world around us. It is a way for Him to call us to action to be part of correcting wrong situations.

Or, perhaps, maybe it is His way of drawing attention to our own blind spots and weaknesses so we can begin to work on ourselves.

It’s true that there are some people who will frustrate us. With situations, there is usually a way to fix things. With people, that is not always the case. In those instances, we cannot really change another. That is up to God. But we can determine how we will react to the frustrating situations we find ourselves in.

I encourage you to not let frustrations get the best of you. Remember that there is always something deeper happening. Guard your heart from anger and bitterness towards frustrating people. Guard your heart from placing your disgruntled attitude on those around you when the frustrating situations come your way.

Continue to shine the love of Jesus in a dark world.