Friday, April 1, 2011

Day 19

The spiritual gift of complaint!

I used to have it.  I still do if I try really hard!  Wait, that's not really true.  I should have said; I still do if I don't try really hard ! ;-)  Are ya feelin' me!

Here's the deal.  A little over two months ago, our Pastor (Craig Groeschel of Life Church) presented an amazing series called "I Quit".  One of the sermons was titled "I Quit Complaining."  I can't explain it, but that message REALLY spoke to me.  I hadn't really thought of myself as a complainer before, and if I had, I would have thought myself justified.  Not anymore.

When I really made a concerted effort to evaluate what was coming out of my mouth, I found that I was a bit of a mutterer - complaining under my breath and punctuating my annoyance/frustration/laziness with heavy sighs and internal eye rolls!  I was also really good at cloaking my complaint with sarcasm or passive aggressive digs.  It wasn't very becoming!

Well, I am happy to report that with the help of the Holy Spirit, I have made a concerted effort to improve in this area, and I think that I have been successful (for the most part).  My first step was to regulate the words that came out of mouth.  Turns out; it's a lot of fun to sprinkle words of life onto (and into) someone and watch him/her blossom! 

I'll let you know how step two (letting people off the hook) is going when I have a few good examples under my belt!

Bye for now,
Missi

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