day 28: Complainers

Okay, let's just stipulate that there is always going to be something or many things we don't like about our work. Could be that we don't like our boss, our office, our co-workers, our tasks, our commute, or just about anything. It's just the way it is that we aren't going to like everything about our job. So, the real question is what are we supposed to do about those things we don't like? Of course, we are to do our best to change what we don't like and make our work the best it can be, but, it is how we go about that change that can make us, as believers, different from others. Stop for a moment and think with me, do you know someone at work who all the time is complaining? You know, the person who seems as though he/she are just down on about everything and every other word out of their mouth is a complaint? I once counseled one of these people and when he came to me for the umpteenth time about the same issue and complaints and he said, "this is never going to change!", I said, "Sam, do you really believe that it is not going to ever change?". He emphatically said, "Yes, it is never going to change". So my return was, "If you really believe that then why don't you accept your belief and quit complaining about it, or tell me that it is so important to you that you go ahead and resign over it. Is it that important?". To that he told me it was not really that important after all and accepted the fact that his constant complaining over the issue was not really doing him or anyone else any good. He was not smiling when he left my office, but I believe that he was a little more content with himself, and I can restedly assure you that everyone else who he worked with was happier by measures. God gives us a word about complaining in Numbers 11:1; "The people soon began to complain to the Lord about their hardships; and when the Lord heard them, his anger blazed against them." God, doesn't want us to be complainers. He doesn't mind if we are prayers and bring our petitions to him, but complaining for the sake of complaining, just doesn't cut it with God and it is real drag on others around usin work who have to listen to the complaints and get drug involuntarily into the emotions of the issue. It's worth a try to see if today you can be complaint free. I like to say to others when they ask me how I am doing, "that I have no complaints". And if they listen to that response, I follow it up with, "complaining is only reinforcing a problem to myself and that doesn't do me any good at all". So, see if today you can be complaint free at work and see how that fits. You might just like the way it feels.