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Will you take the BOLD 30 days without complaining challenge?
30 Days Without Complaining??? Going without complaining is hard enough to do for five minutes much less 30 days, but I’ve learned that the secret to thankfulness is changing my heart from the inside out. Every fall, near the end of October thankfulness and gratitude challenges begin to dominate social media as we start to look ahead to the Thanksgiving holiday with a sense of how greatly we have been blessed. But after participating in several different Thankfulness/Gratitude Challenges, I noticed that being thankful in one social media post a day wasn’t the same thing as truly having an attitude of thankfulness. Was I truly focusing on the blessings that God has…
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No Complaints
This morning, God’s plan for my day was not what I was expecting. I was prepared to begin my 2nd Annual 30 Days Without Complaint Challenge with a Sunday full of fellowship and worship, excited for our new pastor, but . . . My day started by challenging ‘no complaints’ right away. Instead, I snuggled with a sore-‘froated’, upset-tummy-having-little-girl and got the opportunity to tackle laundry, carpet cleaning, and scrubbing the bathroom. Focusing on no complaints meant biting back discouraging words about starting my morning cleaning up vomit. I took captive the bitter thoughts seeping into my heart over a groggy barfing child, and smiled. 2 Corinthians 10:5b take every…
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What I Learned When I Stopped Complaining
For the 2014 Thanksgiving season, I began a challenge of 30 Days Without Complaint. And it was hard. Honestly, it was pretty much impossible to keep 100%. I wanted to revisit what I learned when I stopped complaining. 1. I learned that being negative has been my default setting for most of my life. I tend to see the one wrong thing like a flashing beacon begging me to fix it, which makes me a fantastic essay grader as a teacher, but also means I have to be purposeful about seeing the positive and intentional about mentioning it! Trying my best to follow the dictionary definition of ‘complaining’ as expressing…
