One of the classroom teachers in a school where I work is a baseball fan, and in her room, there is a bulletin board with a baseball glove and baseballs around it. When I noticed her bulletin board, I was sitting in on a mandatory in-service, and the information did not seem relevant to me as a speech-language pathologist. The bulletin board read, “Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?” At that moment, my attitude was less than joyful, so I sat there, wondering how I could catch a more joyful attitude.
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Later in the day, while at home, I read a Bible study, and the word attitude met my eyes again. At this point, I realized there was a pattern here, and I might need to listen up! I believe God knows how to get our attention, and He pointed out that I needed to stop and check my attitude. God speaks to us and knows how to help us listen.
The truth is, I was finding myself overwhelmed by my workload. My work responsibilities were carrying over into my already busy home life. I wanted a joyful attitude, but busyness was sapping my joy. I found that I was complaining. I believe I was complaining, even during my prayer time, which is why God had to get my attention. Even though I was overloaded, and my complaining seemed justified, God was helping me understand that complaining is not how he would want me to deal with the situations.
Choose a Joyful Attitude Instead of Complainin
Complaining is a way of letting others know you are overloaded, but it does nothing more and decreases everyone’s joy. Just because I am not in a good mood, I should not become a killjoy for everyone else. I wanted to do better, so I needed to figure out how to maintain a joyful attitude and avoid complaining.
J – Jesus, O – Others, Y – Yourself. I love this acrostic.
To keep a joyful attitude, we should always put Jesus first, others second, and ourselves last.
If we are hyper-focused on ourselves, it is easy to spend too much energy fighting what God may be trying to do. God may be trying to use us to help others, but instead of putting ourselves last, we complain as if our comfort is most important. We must remember that the situations we find ourselves in, even at work, maybe God-designed. By changing our focus, we will trust that God has a plan and will work everything out for our good. We have to believe that God has everything figured out. We have to cultivate a joyful attitude and stop complaining.
As we complain to others about our situation, we seek sympathy or want someone else to know about our struggles, but why? The Bible tells us not to do things with murmuring (Philippians 2:14 KJV). We damage our ability to witness to others regarding God’s goodness. No one wants to listen to complainers, and we are supposed to be the ones with faith. Even if we speak to a friend, we leave them with dampened spirits as we walk away. We need to think about others and how our actions will affect them.
Pray and Ask God to Help With our Attitude
Whenever we realize a problem, we pray and ask God to help. God sometimes places us in situations to help us grow and to build our faith. Sometimes, those situations may seem hard. Rather than complaining, we should pray to know God’s will and ask God how we should handle every situation.
We do not have a joyful attitude because all is well or everything is going as planned. Having a joyful attitude that doesn’t complain is a choice. We must be joyful despite our circumstances because we are thankful, and God can.
The opposite of complaining is praising. We should begin by praising God for his many blessings when we pray. Even in the presence of difficulty, we should be able to be thankful.
A Prayer For a Joyful Attitude
Prayer helps us to have a joyful attitude. We have to be joyful rather than complainers, which is sometimes challenging. When we pray, we are reminded who is in control, and we can give all our feelings of frustration to a God who loves us and can help us through every situation.
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I’m so glad I came across your post. Thank you as a believer and a fellow Speech pathologist. Thank you for your encouraging words.
Hi Sandy. I never know who will
find my post but I always pray that they are a blessing. It encourages my heart when someone comments. Such a bonus that you are an SLP too. God bless you because working with others requires the love of God and is so needed. Thanks for blessing me today.
We are blessed to be a blessing to others.
Amen. I agree.
So would venting to a therapist be a bad thing in your opinion as complaining is part of venting(ie people talk about what is bothering them to the therapist)
I respect all therapists as they are trained to handle the vent and help work through it. The average person does not know what to do with our complaints and it brings everyone done. At work, the complainer is seen as lazy and generally it is better to take it to God or like you say, a therapist! Great point.