complaining

Do Everything Without Complaining or Arguing

Twice in the last few days I have been reminded of the scripture:  “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” (Philippians 2:14).  I wish it was because I have mastered the art of the “doing” without the “complaining” or “arguing,” but that is not the case.  Normally I don’t complain out loud…just to myself…but it is complaining nonetheless.  Apparently, it is an area God is still working on in my life.

A couple of days ago I had to perform a rather simple task.  It didn’t require a lot of me, just my time.  I, however, felt like someone else should be doing what I was doing, so I was kind of stewing a little bit about it.  Then I had Philippians 2:14 go through my mind.  Felt like God was reminding me to not complain, so I tried to be a little more mindful of that through the weekend.

Today, I did a little backsliding on the whole “complaining or arguing” area of my life.  There was something I expected to happen today.  It wasn’t an overly difficult task (at least I felt that way) and it didn’t happen when I thought it should.  It was something I expected, it didn’t occur, so I kind of stewed a little bit more.

While I was stewing about what I expected, something unexpected happened.  Something was brought to me that I wasn’t anticipating.  It was both thoughtful and appreciated and triggered that thought in my head that I had gone back into the “complaining or arguing” mode.  Again, God had to get my attention and remind me that I don’t have that area of my life quite mastered.

Interestingly enough, to kind of top things off, the expected thing I thought should be done, got done.  My complaining to myself about it didn’t make it happen and reminded me again how little complaining accomplishes in my life.

While it is cool how God uses things like that to teach us, it also reminds me that I still need to be taught.  I may not complain the rest of the day, but I need to be aware of its potential in my life.  God is still working on us and I certainly can’t complain about that.