Ephesians 4:29 – Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
You are what you say… what you read… what you hear. You can be found in what you write as well; giving little bits of your self away to others.
I have had fewer words to share with you online because of my busy life, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to write them down. There’s this catch – this hole in my pocket – where time slips out and takes the words with it.
The few words I can catch are kept on scraps of paper… notes in the shower… scratchy spiral notebooks with scribbles and stains. I save them up in text files on my computer desktop in hopes of being able to flesh them out when there is time.
In real life, while there are no words on this screen, there are plenty of words around the house. In a house of six people, there’s very little silence.
Through the course of a day there are words about clean laundry needing to be picked up off of the bedroom floor and folded, diapers needing to be done, wet towels heaped on the floor with dirty clothes after ‘someone’ takes a shower, plates left in the sink with sticky peanut butter that ‘someone’ didn’t rinse, and so on…
In a homeschool house, a house where many people rub shoulders and elbows 24/7, there are plenty of words that make you tired just hearing them. Words that speak of things to do or things done wrong… should have’s and oughts. These are inevitable like we are flawed. People make mistakes. People make messes. Life gets itself into a tangle.
Somewhere in-between all these messy words there needs to be a different kind of Word being spoken. {Here’s where I begin preaching to myself…}
The definition of the word COMPLAIN:
1: to express grief, pain, or discontent 2: to make a formal accusation or charge.
It’s also defined as voicing or showing dissatisfaction or resentment… finding fault. There you have it: the definition of humanity. “The grass is always greener” mentality. Day in, day out. We live in such an imperfect world. Everyone has their dirty laundry. {Some of us just have more than others.}
Complaining about something is how we express our great ungratefulness. It’s catchy, too. Seems to pass down like blue eyes and freckles from parent to child without effort. It’s far too easy to do and learn. Sometimes we don’t even realize we are doing it until we hear it come back to us from the youngsters.
The Lord was wise to command us against it. It gives root to bitterness and discord.
Complaint is the devil’s unraveling thread.
We would be wise to remember that without trails and difficulties, our faith wouldn’t be producing perseverance – and we would be left without hope. The Pilgrims knew this. They counted the cost of living a life of persecution for their faith in a familiar land with many comforts they had grown accustomed to… and decided to brave a storm-tossed sea, an unforgiving wilderness, and a bitter winter of starvation to seek out freedom to worship their God. Only half of those who sailed to this land survived that first winter. They built their houses and buried their children with their bare hands. We forget that Thanksgiving came with great cost… and wasn’t a holiday, but an attitude they embraced during extreme difficulty.
What are we willing to endure in gratitude for our faith and our family? Are we focused on prayer and praise — in lifting each other up before the Lord? What do our words say about how full of “thanks” our hearts are?
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ~ Ephesians 4:2
Here are a few choice morsels to chew on as you prepare for your Thanksgiving celebrations:
In trying to get our own way, we should remember that kisses are sweeter than whine. ~Author Unknown
The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects. ~Lord Jeffrey
Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses. ~Proverb
May we spend our days – not just our holidays – truly counting our blessings… for they are the true measure of our belief in God’s goodness.
In Him,
Heather
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Oh, how i love this. I read an article yesterday about children’s happiness now being based on their ‘online’ world – meaning how well they are doing on video games or social media. Oh, how that grieves my heart. Joy is found in the Lord – and you are pointing yours to Christ through all of the moments you are with them – and with us when you have those moments to sit down, write, edit words, edit photos – thank you for this – and you are so right – we should give thanks every day – not just a Holiday.
Thanks Rebecca. 🙂 I appreciate you sharing it. I actually wrote this one over a period of 2 years. God pulled it out of the archives for me to finish off, out of the blue.
Beautifully written.