Reflections....

Praise in every situation?

As I reflect on the past months of this year, I have a mixture of emotions.

In one of our office devotions I was reminded to give praise no matter what.

This is a bit of a stretch; “give praise in every situation”.

Well that is not what I feel often times, after all that I have been through these past many months, it is easy to see what has gone wrong and miss out on things to be thankful for.

I have not been happy in awhile. I feel so overwhelmed with everything.

I feel let down by people that normally one would expect support, understanding, love from.

My relationship and trust in family has been crumbling. The very place that one would normally find solid connection, has failed me.

So then, how do I reach that place where giving praise is possible no matter the circumstances?

Often, friends tell me to have faith. May be I need to have a little more of that and then I will learn to praise in every situation. Without faith I may not come to that place of constant praise.

Grumbling/complaining..... when is it okay?

Today as I went about my business, I was pulled into conversations where I was led to conclude that we humans do complain way too much. We complain about the rainy season, and the hot season. We complain about power outages, bad traffic, government laws (new ones and old ones). We complain about a particular preacher's sermon.

We basically complain about every little thing. But why is that?

Who ever promised us that we were going to have everything perfect? Well then, when things are upsetting,are we not allowed to complain? Even just a little?

When is it okay to grumble/complain?