Hey You Bunch of Whiners!

Last week (when it was not blistering hot or pouring like a monsoon) I was doing a little gardening. Then, a little howling broke the silence. Soon, the single howler had company. There were only ten dogs in the kennel, but I think all joined the chorus. As soon as it began, it ended.

What was that about?

Misery loves company. In fact, Misery has been known to show up at my doorstep and we'll enjoy a cup of coffee together (told you it loved company).

Complaining can easily become a habit. Soon, we focus on the negative just so we have something to talk about with other people. It grows and before you know it, everyone's howling about something.

Breaking this habit is not easy. Often, others will derail us in our efforts as well. And then there's the peer pressure of keeping our mouth shut while others complain, not adding your own story of misery.

Certainly we have our own bad stuff and its worthy of our consideration. The more serious stuff must be dealt with in a healthy way, and often it persists. But the whining stuff...the stuff that really gets our juices going...that's what we need to look beyond.

A loose translation of Galatians 5 tells us that living a life with God and seeking his ways leads to affection for others, exuberance about life, and serenity. Aren't those fantastic things? Isn't that worth our focus? And when that really gets ingrained into our personality and our behavior, we will see we have much better things to do with our time and energy than howling about things that are insignificant.