Psalm 100:4 – Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. (NLT)

On any given day, disappointments can be overwhelming, and conquering through praise doesn't come easily.

Enter the life of a middle school Language Arts teacher. For the first three weeks of school, the program that we use for grades, homework, lesson plans, lunch, announcements, and payment was up and down because our Internet was up and down.

On one particular day — as the students attempted to work through an online grammar exercise — the Internet dropped us at least fifteen times within forty minutes. Frustrating! Making lesson plans was challenging due to the intermittent connection. What normally took an hour took an entire day. Student lunch orders didn't process. One fellow teacher threatened to throw her computer out the window. I thought about it myself. Of course, all of this had nothing to do with our computers.

Since our lives as teachers are so dependent on the Internet, several weeks of issues tax us and make finding anything positive difficult. Of course, we have to toss in staff meetings, parent meetings, and other student-related matters.

Yet, many reasons to praise exist. We work in a smaller atmosphere where peer and student-teacher relationships are closer. Fights among students are almost non-existent. So is backbiting and jealousy among teachers and staff. We also get to bathe everything that we do in a Christian worldview. I can talk about Christ and biblical principles as often as I choose. In fact, I'm instructed to.

I've encountered some disappointing times during my lifetime. When I'm under a heavy load of whatever, it's challenging to discover the light — but there is one — and it is there for everyone if they want it to be.

Knowing Christ as Saviour gives us reason to praise Him. Realizing that all our sins — past, present, and future — were forgiven at the cross is worth shouting about. God is also omnipotent. He controls everything. The reason for the disappointment is immaterial. He has authority over the situation. Looking for the positive in all situations helps, too. We can see glasses of water as half full or half empty. The choice is ours.

Let us allow God to teach us how to use praise so that we can conquer disappointing times.

Prayer: Father, teach us to praise You even when it appears that we have no reason to do so. Amen.