What do you do when...

Happy Wednesday!

I have a heavy thing on my heart to write about today. It's something that has been all up in my face lately. And something that I lie awake at night wrestling with. Something that probably no one knows the answer to. Something that is a little sad and upsetting. Something that everyone faces, I'm sure. And that thing is this.

What do you do when people who you've poured your life into and invested years in make disappointing decisions and take paths that you know they're better than?

What do you do when you pray and pray and pray and pray and pray for your closets family's salvation and they seem further away from that than ever?

These things suck!  Sometimes I loose hope. Sometiems I lose the motivation to keep praying and keep believing.

I know there will always be these times in ministry...because people have free will and can do what they want with their lives--pleasing or unpleasing to me--not because my God isn't faithful or true.

So, I pick my sad heart up off the floor and I cling to Jesus and keep believing, keep praying, keep interceding. If I don't, who else will? 

He is the author and perfector of my faith and their faith, the one who created these people that i love and grieve for, the one who knows the number of hairs on their heads, the one who sees their future, the one who loves them unconditionally, the one who is in control of it all, and the only one who can save. 

sigh.

Do you all experience this? What do you find helpful?

I've found these two songs helfpul :)
Pray for a friend - Casting Crowns
I have to believe - Rita Springer