“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶ Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 31:4-10, English Standard Version)

“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody is doing anything about it.” (A common saying.)

“Can’t complain, but sometimes I do.” (Another common saying, and possibly part of the lyrics to a song I can’t quite recall.)

My affirmation for today is this: “Today, by God’s grace, I am choosing to refrain from  complaining about anything or anyone.”

I started to add the words, “It is not going to be easy.” However, I caught myself before I did so. It occurred to me that I was about to complain about how hard it was not to complain. Complaining about my tendency to complain is part of the complaining loop.

I just read a bit about the positive aspects of complaining in a prestigious psychological journal. However, even in this article, the author acknowledged the many negative aspects of complaining.

The truth is that complaining can even harm us physically. Apparently, complaining releases cortisol into our system, and cortisol triggers stress. So, you may think that you’re decreasing your stress by complaining, but you’re not; you are actually increasing it.

None of us likes to be around a person who complains a lot. Guess what! If you are the complainer, you are probably around yourself a lot. But, like body odor, we can’t smell the stench of our own complaints.

So, in the midst of writing this post, my sponsor (to whom I send my report and daily affirmation) responded, “What do you think about _____________?” The blank wasn’t a blank. I added the blank. Let it suffice that there was a name of a person whom I do not care for. Suddenly, I was confronted with my tendency to complain about this person.

My reply to my sponsor was as follows, again with blank where a name would be.

“I am trying to use _____________’s frequent attitudes, words, and behavior to give me some insights into myself during my own not-so-good times.”

Perhaps this gives me some notion of how to use my own grinchy tendency in a healthy fashion. I can use the things and people that I am inclined to complain about to give me a doorway to work on some things that need to be changed in me.

And a final thought: For me, as a person who says he believes in a good God who supplies everything I need, complaining is also a practical form of atheism. Complaining that I don’t have enough time, money, prestige, or anything else is a practical denial of what I am only theoretically believing.

And then there are also the snakes.