it's Hard to Complain When You're Counting Your Blessings

There are many times when I'm tempted to complain. The very moment when something doesn't happen to my liking I want to open my mouth and curse the situation. If the barista doesn't sweeten my coffee the way I take it or if the woman who cleans for me misses a speck of dirt, I want to fuss without taking the time to realize how blessed I am to be in a position to be able to afford to pay someone to do the things I don't want to do.

As I write this I am watching my youngest child sleeping. We had a health scare and thankfully she is going to be just fine. But never again will I complain about the high cost of health insurance because when we needed a physician's care we received it. I can't imagine the pain of watching a child suffer because you don't have access to help. I will also never complain about my daughter's messy bedroom or wet towels on the floor because if something were to happen to her I would have done anything, paid anything, to have her storm through our house leaving her belongings in her wake.

I used to tell my children everyday is like Christmas morning to God. He looks at our attitude as we unwrap our daily gifts: good health, jobs, family, friends, transportation, clean water and healthy food, fresh air, the list goes on. If we fail to be thankful for these gifts, then He won't bring out the larger gifts of abundance and prosperity. Why should He show us the big box that's hidden in the closet if we aren't thankful for the little one that's beneath the tree?

It is never my intention to preach. I only want to work out the things that I encounter in my own life and I hope that maybe I can hep someone else along the way. From this moment forward I am promising myself that I will not complain about anything ever again and I'm also putting you on notice. If you complain about anything in my presence I am going to call you on it because complaining is contagious. So no more complaining about the boss, the weather, the amount of work we have to do. Instead we are going to give thanks for all things, great and small.

In my Gratitude Journal I wrote this morning that I am grateful for the following:

1. Family and friends who love me.

2. A healthy body and a sound mind.

3. A job that allows me to support myself and my family.

4. Clean water, fresh air, and healthy food.

5. A comfortable home and reliable transportation

If I never receive another thing in my life, I am already extremely blessed and for that I am grateful. I hope you will take a moment to write out the things that you are thankful for and if you feel  the need to complain, I encourage you to focus instead on the list you created.

  

A Right to the Divine

I don’t believe God cares whom we love as long as we remain open to the possibility of love. No matter how hard I try to understand the Fundamentalists who preach that God hates homosexuals, I can’t help but hear the fear and ignorance beneath their loud diatribes. Yes, I am familiar with Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 but I am also familiar with all of the other scriptures that speak against the other sins: judgment, gossiping, overeating, coveting, fornication and adultery. Sin, in all forms, displeases God so who are we to choose which ones are the greatest offenders.

There are some things I don’t understand, but is it really my responsibility to try to understand? Shouldn’t I just accept that God’s ways are not like man’s ways and that when I die and meet my Maker He will explain it all to me?

Recently I had to remind a friend that we all have a right to the sacred and to the divine. Too many churches kick people out under the premise that because they are different in some way they don’t have the right to God. That’s bull because our Creator loves all of His creations and wants us to be in intimate relationship with Him in spite of our imperfections.

So I believe our job is to get to God any way we can. To lay ourselves low at His feet in worship and pray that we learn to look at the world and all of it’s people through His eyes and not our own. Because when we look at people through our own very human eyes we see only their imperfections. We focus on every blemish and every wrinkle and forget to see the divinity in every man and woman.

Perhaps Lady Gaga was right when she said “I was born this way” or maybe she is incredibly deluded. I don’t know. All I know is that I’ve been given only two tasks: to love God and all of His creation.