Living a Complaint-free Life - Part III

Living a Complaint-free Life – Part III

Fifth, look for solutions.  A principal at a middle where I taught for one school year began each faculty meeting by reminding us she only entertains “solutions-based” complaining.  If you offer a complaint, you must also recommend a solution; otherwise your complaint is invalid.  If a teacher attempted to violate this sacrosanct principle, she would stop the meeting until he or she proposed a resolution.  This approach works magnificently as it relates to achieving a “complaint-free” life.  Complaints actually hint toward answers to our daily challenges if we do not focus upon adversarial circumstances and explore ways of surmounting our problems. 

Sixth, replace each complaint with a favorable and worthy thought.  The Bible says God’s peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  The writer offers a word picture of a sentry guard who stands at the gate of the mind and door of the heart to prevent any unwanted visitors from entering.  When fear, doubt, and cynicism try to assail a disciple’s emotions and reason, the peace of God, which the sentry symbolizes, immediately stops them!  “Halt!  Who goes there?”  Arrest each negative thought before it germinates in your mind.  Apprehend it before it crosses the threshold of your lips.  Substitute each complaint with a prayer.

Seventh, learn each lesson that your complaints teach.  Most likely, the compilation of complaints suggests a character flaw that needs correction.  Asking the question, “What lesson do my complaints offer,” is another means of transforming our complaints into assets.

Finally, eighth, move on with your life.  The intense heat of summer always yields to declining temperatures of fall and harvest time which foreshadows winter which inevitably yields to spring which offers new life and another cycle.  As the seasons turn with life’s natural rhythm, life moves on and on.  Similarly, we cannot allow complaints to paralyze us.  If we encounter negative and difficult people who personify impediments, we cannot permit them to derail our dreams and goals.  Focus upon your priorities.  Steadfastly pursue your passion and purposes.  To do so, move on with your life notwithstanding any complaints you have.

Complaining never changes anything.  As I return to that average Monday when the still, small and whispering voice spoke and told me to commit irreversibly to a complaint-free life, I hope to persevere in my heartfelt desire to live the life that I imagine.  I realize that I can only do so by forever eliminating complaints.