Being Positive instead of Complaining

"Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus," Philippians 2:5

"Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world," Philippians 2:14-15

"Be hospitable to one another without complaining." 1 Peter 4:9

Do you know anyone who complains and thinks nothing ever good happens to them? They might groan, roll their eyes and stomp their feet a lot. When things go wrong, how do you react?  Do you ever feel down, grouchy, lazy, hateful, mean, or just want to act ugly?  Then you are a victim of a bad or negative attitude. God wants you to trade those bad attitudes for better ones. He tells you that we should not trust your feelings. Feelings lie to us. Jesus has a good attitude and the cure for this syndrome. You need to ask yourself when you feel like moping, "How would Jesus act?"   We should think in the same way that Jesus thinks. This is not always easy for us but He can help. You just need to work on your attitude and change the way you think. It is a daily challenge. Match up your attitudes to that of Jesus and see if they looks like His. Acting as Jesus would can bring joy
back into a bad situation! Seek God out and he will help you have an attitude that will honor Him. 

Complaining is very common and problems happen all the time in everyday living. But it doesn’t make it right to complain if you feel you are suffering a hardship or being inconvenienced. And who really wants to be around whiners who can rub off on you, lead you to pout yourself and pick up a bad habit? But did you know that the gripers and grumblers of the world don’t have any more problems than anyone else? And did you also know that complaining will not change anything or make the situation better.  You might have heard that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.  Having a bad attitude will cause you to feel bitter inside and make you think that the whole world is against you and in turn hurt those around you. Your only hope is prayer and cooperation with God to have a positive attitude.

You need to have an attitude like Jesus and handle situations in your life like He would. He should be your model so you will be a positive Christian example to all those around you. There will be a lot of stress, disappointments and frustrations that you will face in life and family and friends can really let you down. You have the choice of either making them get you down or not. It's how you react to disappointments and act when you don't get your way. It's all in how you handle it! When you feel sorry for yourself and blame others or think that you don't deserve it, just rise above it and choose to repond in a more loving way instead of getting all hurt and angry. It is not easy to free yourself of these feelings but God wants that for you. If you complain too much or focus on all the negative things and all the things that go wrong in your life, you can forget all the good things God does in your life. You can waste your time complaining or you can find a way to make things better, remembering all the others things God has done for you.

A bad attitude can turn you away from God and may lead you to make wrong choices. A happy, positive person can do God’s work and teach others about Him and others will listen. The good news is that you have control over your emotions and can decide your reaction. Having a good attitude and remaining positive will let Christ show in your life. You don’t want to show discontentment with the life God has given you and dissatisfaction with what He is doing in your life. After all, aren’t you supposed to show God’s love in what you say and what you do?

Negative attitudes come from negative thoughts. When negative actions and words come from negative thoughts, your body and mouth will follow with what you are thinking. So all you need to do is turn any negative thoughts you have into positive responses. Every day is a balance of doing what you really want to do and what you feel you have to do that you might not enjoy. When your mom asks you to do something, you can say in a nice tone, "Okay mom" and when you know you did something wrong, just say,“I’m sorry" and when you can’t do something and get a "no" for an answer just say, "Okay, maybe next time."  Saying any of those words may feel forced at first but with practice it will become easier and more natural to you. You have a choice every day on what attitude you will have for the day.  You are in charge of your attitude.

When you feel in a complaining mood, you can stop and think before you speak and tell yourself that you need to take a deep breath and calm down. You could make a list of the positives and negatives in your life and then focus on the things you wrote on your positive list. This may require a lot of work on your part to pull you back into the positive mode when you think you are slipping into negativity. So try and seek the good and learn to be okay with the bad and then look past the bad to see the good in life. If you can keep a positive attitude then you can manage difficult situations that will creep up in your life. And I bet you can still find the good in those challenging times because God’s blessings are right in front of you. 

The opposite of complaining is being grateful and thankful to God because you have to trust that He is only working out His plan for you in your life. And being strong in your faith will make the trials easier and keep you from the temptations of Satan. Put on a new attitude because you belong to God. You can choose not to get mad, or ugly.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you act in kindness and love.  No one is stronger than God! The Holy Spirit will show you His power as He helps you change your unpleasant attitudes. When you ask for God's will to be done in you, even your own will is not stronger than His. He wants you to choose to do what is right and use His Holy Spirit's power to help you change the way you act. So remember not to gripe and whine but ask God to help you change and He will give you the grace to overcome complaining and move forward.