Re The Complain Challenge

Hayyy, I'm back like I never left to report on the complain challenge I created for myself. How did it go? Well, it was hard. It wasn't impossible but it was hard. And I really don't think it meant that I stopped complaining entirely or that I will stop complaining entirely. It just means that I am more aware of my complaining, if that makes any sense. To be fair, since the amount of times I complained reduced, one might say the challenge did work. But I still complained. Each time though, I was mostly able to quickly revert to gratitude of some kind or focus on someone else's problems by helping them come up with solutions and/or praying for them. That's a very helpful strategy by the way: shifting the focus away from yourself to others. When life throws you lemons, you can try to think about your friend or family or I don't know, just try to be there for others. Honestly, life is not always about you and your problems. It always helps to just think about others; it helps you put things in perspective. I am definitely not referring to any one person. It's all of us haha.

I want to reiterate that complaining is not inherently bad. Complaining is cathartic. Sometimes it even helps you figure out the problem. David in the bible was a complainer. Man, was that man whiny, lmao. But, to be fair, if anyone needed to complain, it was David. He went through HELL. However, look at it this way: he was a man after God's heart. But reading the book of Psalms reveals his myriad of emotions: sometimes he was deliriously happy, thanking God for being so awesome, for being so great. Other times, he was alone, depressed, and worried. And some other time, he was basically scared; REALLY scared. Job complained: I mean, he did have tons of reasons to lol. Moses complained. And not only did Moses complain, he let his complain affect his actions. Moses is not a very good example because his complaining actually cost him a LOT. Sometimes, I still think the whole Moses thing was unfair, but that's between God and me :-). 

So yeah complaining is not a fruit of the spirit. I say this to say, our emotions don't scare God at all. If at all, he needs to hear it. Don't let this make you feel awful for complaining. But try to be more aware of your emotions. Or at least, that's my plan. Make sure your complaining is not doubting the essence of who God is; that your complaining is not faithless. That even in the midst of your complaining, you know, UGH I hate this inconvenience, but I also know God is good and capable. So tell it to God like it is, but rest assured, at his core he is compassionate.

Love,

I