At the end of Haiti we were sick of the heat. We were tired of being tired. We hated being sweaty and smelly. It was so easy to complain about our circumstances.
That is when we decided that something must be done. Complaining and bad attitudes is not who we are, we are people who speak life. That’s when we called the team we were with together and Janina initiated a words fast.
It was funny because the team thought we were telling them that they couldn’t speak for the next 24 hours and they were flipping out. We told them that we were going on a complaining fast. It lead to a good discussion about what complaining is exactly.
Since we are so prone to complain without thinking about it, I added on that any time someone did complain and was caught they would have to say ten things they were thankful for.
People were caught early in the day, but it was fun to turn the complaining into thankfulness. Everyone was on board and found it really easy to find ten things to be thankful for.
The next day, one of the girls who has been reading through Proverbs, got her Bible out and read Proverbs 26:11 which says, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” She encouraged her team to not go back to complaining, but to continue the thankful game!
What a great reminder of what we should be doing daily! The Bible is full of verses on being thankful. Yet we tend to complain rather than to be thankful. Play the thankful game today. See how much more you have to be thankful for than you have to complain about!
Be joyful always;
pray continually;
GIVE THANKS in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
