Over the past eight years R has discovered a little secret about me...I complain. Early in our marriage he would say, "You whine like a mule" and I would take great offense to that. Of course I was thinking in my "fat" mindset and thought he was directing his comment to my body shape being similar to a mule. He set me straight on that one and let me know he thought I looked nothing like a mule...he was just sick of my whining like a mule! One night on a walk home from campus he said to me, "I am so sick of your complaining!" I immediately responded that I was sick of him complaining about me complaining. That broke the tension and we avoided an argument! I guess his comments teasing me about whining like a mule over the years has made me realize that sometimes I do complain a lot. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. This week on Oprah I saw a guest named Pastor Will Bowen. He is the pastor of a church in Kansas City, Missouri and during one sermon he challenged his congregation to stop complaining for 21 days. In order to make the challenge a bit easier he gave everyone little rubber bracelets to put on a wrist and each time they caught themselves complaining they had to switch the bracelet to the other wrist and start their 21 days over. His church sends these bracelets out free of charge and is challenging to world to live complaint free lives. (see www.acomplaintfreeworld.org) He is not saying we don't have problems in our lives and not to acknowledge them, but go about discussing them in a different way. The attitude we approach our problems with and the tone in our voice says a lot about the person we are. Sure, life will always have its moments, but we just need to go about them with a more positive outlook. (On a funny side note, the pastor told a story of a group who ordered hundreds of bracelets, remember you get them free of charge, and sent them back saying they were of poor quality!! I guess they missed the whole complaining point!) I guess I just want to live my life with a more positive vibe. I know this won't change my world but who knows, it just might!
3 comments:
Hello Jennilyn,
It's Rob. We have you bookmarked now.
rob
Hmm. Maybe not a rubber bracelet, but a pretty silver one might work!! :) It is hard to be positive all the time, but I think it is worth it. It definitely changes my day when I try not to look at everything that goes wrong and be happy about everything that goes right. But it's always helpful to know that you have an ear that will listen when you think you are gonna pop. You always have my ear!!
-Ab
hmmm...ryan is from kansas city, missouri; this pastor is from kansas city. i wonder if there's something in the water there.
i think this is a great project. i'm a firm believer that the way we think and talk about our lives can change the way we live our lives. and elder holland's talk from saturday morning is very pertinent to this topic. if you didn't get a chance to hear it (and even if you did) it's worth reading.
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