Since moving back into our fixer upper home, complaining has been a major problem area for me. There have been many times where we had to do without some of our basic needs being met. I complained...a lot. I'm still complaining. I need to stop. Not only does it make me dwell on the things I cannot change and sours my mood, it also makes my husband feel badly when there is nothing he can do about it either. It also affects my childrens' moods.
I'm reminded of the story we read about in Exodus where Moses is leading the people through the "great and terrible wilderness" and the people complain over and over again to him. One verse stands out to me the most: "And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord." Exodus 16:8. This struck me because it is so true. Everything we have from our water to our cars to the bread and pasta in our cupboards. It is all given to us by the Lord. When we complain about what we have (or don't), we're not complaining to no one in particular, we're not complaining to our husbands, we're complaining against our God.
It's true that I haven't had a bathroom for a year, but I HAVE had alternatives that work well. Last January, we did lose our furnace on new year's day and were without any heat for 2 weeks while the new one was shipped and installed. We were chilly, BUT we did have means to make it warm enough. There are times when I'm tired of the mice and not being able to hang things on our walls, but I have walls and a roof. It's also a cheap house which allows us to put our money into more important things, like the IVF we need to grow our family and pay off our student loans.
This topic goes right along with my previous "daily pondering" of being content. I am going to work very hard to feel contentment and avoid ALL complaining. This will be harder than it sounds as I'm going to try to clean my thoughts of complaints as well and try to find the lessons and blessings in life's challenges.