Complaining 101 . . .

What justifies complaining? Are we aware of how often we do it? Do we make exceptions to what actually is considered to be complaining?

Can telling someone about how rude the clerk was to you in the check-out line be a form of grumbling? I guess that depends on how we form our words into sentences.

Allow me to reiterate . . .

“I can’t believe how rude that clerk was to me today,” (insert an exacerbated breath here). “If she doesn’t like her job then she needs to find another one.” Get the point?

Let’s try this the right way (as in representing God way).

“That poor clerk must have been having a bad day, I think maybe we should pray for her.” 

I can easily admit that I sometimes (actually, a lot of sometimes) do it the wrong way, especially when I allow someone’s bad day to become my own and that is when the complaining starts. But does someone else really hold the power over what comes out of our mouth? Quite literally, if we had the ability to change someone’s negative words into positive ones, I’m betting there would be a lot of parents of teenagers, doing some serious adjusting.  Of course, no such power exists, with the exception of the power of controlling what comes out of our own mouths.   

During a recent conversation with someone, I found myself listening to a list of their complaints. Eventually hearing them ending those complaints by justifying them as a result of their tiredness. As tired as they may have been, weariness is no excuse for complaining.  I tend to think that complaining has everything to do with habit and nothing to do with anything else.  We complain much like a chain smoker, reaches for another cigarette.  We’re addicted to complaining and just like a chain smoker can find reasons to smoke, we can find reasons to complain, but quite brutally, it’s a bunch of bull _ _ _ _ (you can fill in the blanks for yourself). 

I was never more aware of how much I unknowingly complained until hearing someone on K-Love radio saying that people complain about seventy times a day.  Seventy times a day, people!!!  That’s a lot.  After hearing that, I started retracing my day in thoughts, wondering if that were even possible. Let’s see about that . . .

Complaint #1 – “Ahhh, is it really time to get out of bed, but I’m still tired.” (Maybe I should have said, “Thank you God for another day of life.”)

Complaint #2 – “It’s freezing in this house,” in response to my husband’s nightly ritual of turning the air conditioning down to 65 on those hot summer months.  (Wasn’t considering how thankful I should have been for having air conditioning in the first place, let alone a house.)

Complaint #3 – “Why is it taking the water so long to heat up in this shower?” (Sorry God, I know there are people who’d give anything to have water to shower in, let alone clean water to drink.)

Complaint #4 – “Ugh, it’s so hot out here.” (Probably should have thanked God for such a beautiful day instead.)

Geeze, four complaints within a sixty-minute time span.  Maybe there is something to that complaining seventy times a day thing.  My husband seemed to think so when I told him what I’d heard on K-Love radio.

I unquestionably said to him that I needed to make a conscious decision to stop complaining.

To which my witty husband replied, “That would slow down your talking.”

“Ooohhhh, he got you good,” I could imagine God saying. 

Although my husband had spoken in jest, was there actual truth behind what he said? Did I complain as much as I talked? Let’s just see about that . . .

There’s too much traffic; the food is too hot; the food is too bland; gas prices are too high; gas prices are too low (just threw that in to see if you were paying attention 😊) Okay, so I do complain a lot and as a Christian it’s not very productive when trying to show people how amazing God is.  After all, should someone so blessed by an amazing God, be complaining? That answer would be a big, N – O.   

Do everything without grumbling or arguing (Philippians 2:14)

Gulp, I need to pay a bit more attention to what comes out of my mouth because there really is no justification, for me (for us) as a Christian(s) to complain.  After all, we are made in His image, and I am pretty sure God doesn’t sit around complaining.

Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

For real people, we have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, livestock, creeping things and even our mouths.  So, the next time you feel the need to complain, don’t make excuses why you do, but instead, remind yourself why you shouldn’t . . .