Thursday, June 21, 2012

GRUMBLE OR GRATITUDE


If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of these comments and click on TELL A FRIEND

        GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW There are over 900 stories and commentaries on this blog that began Nov 24, 2009. It is added to daily.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.”  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. (Philippians 2:14-16)

     The following was an email that made the rounds just after 9/11. 

It was called, “What a Difference a Day Makes."

On Monday, we e-mailed jokes.

On Tuesday, we did not.

On Monday, we were fussing about praying in school.

On Tuesday, we would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying.

On Monday, our heroes were athletes.

On Tuesday, we relearned who heroes are.

On Monday, there were people trying to separate us by race, sex, color, and creed.

On Tuesday, we were all holding hands.

On Monday, we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived.

On Tuesday, we gave money away gladly to people we had never met.

On Monday, we were upset that we had to wait 5 minutes in a fast food line.

On Tuesday, we stood in line for 3 to 5 hours to give blood for the dying.

On Monday, we argued with our kids to clean up their rooms.

On Tuesday, we couldn’t get home fast enough to hug our kids.

On Monday, we went to work as usual.

On Tuesday, we went to work, but some of us didn’t come home.

On Monday, we had families.

On Tuesday, we had orphans.

On Monday, September 10th, life felt routine.

On Tuesday, September 11th, it did not.

What a difference a day makes.

If we monitored your conversations numbered your moments of giving thanks against your complaining, nagging, grumbling moments which would have the greater number?

We all have had reasons in our life to grumble and complain about something.  The question is… how often do we yield to the temptation?  

     And how much good does the grumbling do?

A single shot complaint is acceptable.  We’re human and it is good to get it out of our system.  But a machinegun affect that goes on and on and on is unacceptable.

Jesus was crucified because grumbling had taken over the conversations of the high priests. 

They grumbled about what He was doing, what he wasn’t doing, where he spent his time and with whom, and what He was saying.  

Finally, grumbling so took over their thinking that compassion went out the window and they were downright nasty when it came to decision time. 

 But then that is the way it always works. 

You won’t find very many nice people who are also grumblers. 

They grimace and they shout and they gossip and they fret and they turn committee meetings into utter disaster meetings, and they upset churches and corporations and homes.

 They are an ongoing pain in the neck that keeps life messy and miserable for themselves and everyone around them.

The Apostle Paul was good at poking holes at human frailties…and what he saw taking place in the church at Philippi displeased him no small amount. 

Complaining and complaining and complaining some more.  Disruptive, disturbing, destructive.  True then…true now. 

He probably knew that churches in the future, even unto the 21st century, would still be practicing this monstrosity of the soul…and so, seeing the fault he went after it and wrote,    “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Phil 2:14)  

Listen to this little incident.

A man had considered joining a certain monastery for a long time but when he finally looked into the matter he was somewhat taken back when he learned that to join he had to accept their rule that he could only say two words a year; and that at the end of each year. 

But he really wanted to join the monastery, so he acquiesced.

At the end of the first year he appeared before the Head Monk and spoke his two words, “Food’s bad.”

Another year passed and again he stood before the Head Monk.  He spoke his two-word allotment a second time, “Bed’s hard.”

A third year came to an end and as he stood before the Head Monk, he said, “I quit.”

“Doesn’t surprise me at all,” said the Head Monk, “All you’ve done since you got here is complain.”

TO BE CONTINUED
++++++++++++++++
GO TO ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRUTAL VITAMINS...Neil's other blog...over 900 stories and comments...
click on the URL below
                        http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

++++++++++++++++++++
GO TO AMAZON.COM TO BUY NEIL WYRICK'S THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN...still receiving RAVE REVIEWS 8 years after it's publication.

        "Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understaning and appreciation of Lincoln...(Lt. Colonel C.A.Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)
        "Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information.  (Maynard Pittendreigh, Presbyterian Minister)
        "THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN is an extremely well written book...it is both scholarly and very readable.  I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of that President with an altered and enlarged vision of the man. (William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer, author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn.)                                             
GO TO SPEAKER.NEIL TO SEE NEIL'S ONE MAN AWARD WINNING DRAMATIZATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
. CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BELOW...ON... ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS BLOG....PAST POSTINGS
WHICH IS BETTER TO BE?  A WINDOW OR A DOOR” ” “BE A RAINBOW SEARCHER AND FINDER” “IS YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION?
Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER
TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franiklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING
          V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at
MAGNUS PRESS
          AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM’S Kindle
25% Phone Orders:  800-463-7818

No comments: