When Life Gives You Lemons-Disappointments!

Monday:    
"For over a half century Vista Dome railcars have been know for providing spectacular sight-seeing- and they're still rollin in their classic style on the Branson Scenic Railway!  Enjoy the luxury of the climate-controlled dome, lounge and coach seating as you drink in the beauty of the valleys  and rolling hills."  WOW! This was a booklet describing the Branson Scenic Railway ride.  I thought, this sounds like a great way to see the country around Branson, be in the cool and hear some history. We headed that way on Monday for the ride. Pat, Richard, Norm and I were excited about the trip with some high expectations about the scenery. Were we in for a surprise.

We board the train and headed to find our seats. Along both sides of the car were tables with four chairs at them. The train was going 20 miles one way and then go back the same way, with locomotives on both ends of the train.  These weren't luxury seats... metal chairs with cushioned seats.  OOPS!  Within a few miles of leaving the  depot, I knew I needed to move to the other side of the car so I would be going in the right direction and not get "motion sick". So, I moved over to the table across from us, where a man and a woman were sitting.

Much better!!! Along we went, we saw some beautiful trees, beautfiul trees and more beautiful trees. There were a couple of "worrisome" spots for as I do not really like heights. We went across two trustles that were 100 and 122 feet above the ground. The ground aroound it was very beautiful. The gentleman across from me got a kick out my reaction to the trustles. He began talking about swaying the car...Haahahahah All laughed but me. I did not think it was funny. The other interesting spots were the tunnels: one was half a mile and the other 2/3 of a mile. There was just enough room in the tunnel for the train, with very little to spare. We made it the twenty miles and went back the same way we came, so I moved back over to the seat next to Norm. The most pleasant thing about the ride were the folks we chatted with across from us. There was a set of grandparents with 4 grandkids on a mini vacation.  He was quite interesting to listen to as he and Norm talked and visited.

I don't mind telling you that by the time we got to the end of the ride, I was disappointed.  So were Richard, Pat and Norm with the ride itself. We all agreed that the gentleman across from us and our  fellowship made the trip. But, as far as the history and what we saw...nope!  Trees, trees, and more trees were not what I expected at all.

In the past several months I have shared with several friends this piece of advice: don't expect anything from folks and you won't be disappointed. Most of the time their response is to give me a questioning look. You don't mean that about my spouse right? Yes I do I say. Most of the time our expectations of people, no matter who they are, are unrealistic and what's worse, the other person doesn't know anything about them.  That is a setup for hurt and anger.  Better not to go there.

After the trip, we talked about how disappointed we were in what we saw.  Then all agreed we did enjoy the fellowship with each other and the folks across the car.

So, what do you do with disappointments?  You have the choice. You can get mad turning it outward, hurt by turning it inward, or upset. Most of the time that will not help the situation at all. You can look to the Lord and ask Him for strength to keep going in the face of the disappointment, depending on what it was.  Sometimes we could have avoided the disappointment if we had made different decisions or choices along the road.

God can use the disappointments to make us sweeter or draw us closer to Him. All situations in our lives are under the authority of the Lord, if you are a believer. Use each situation to draw you closer to Him!!

For us, we could have been mad and upsett. What would that have accomplished? Nothing. There was nothing we could do about it once we were on the train. I think what we did was make lemonade out of our lemons.

We went on with our day and had a blast!