Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 79 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

10 Trails to Overcome Complaining

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 79 of our Trek, and the past two days we explored how to perform random acts of kindness each day because each day is unique and we will never have a second chance to live that day. Today we want to focus on the 10 trails to overcome complaining.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. As we start out on life’s trek with its uphill slopes and downhill paths for another week, let us be resolute to make the most of every situation that we face. We may encounter smooth or rough trails, but regardless we have a destination to reach for this week and that is to make a positive impact on everyone that we meet. The destination is never as exciting or important as the journey itself. It is on the daily journey that we are creating and building that living legacy that will last for eternity.  Let’s make it a great journey.

As we set out on our trail today, we run into a very rough trail that is narrow and scattered with rocks and loose dirt. It makes getting solid footing very difficult, but we must continue on our 20 mile hike. It certainly will be difficult.

Under the adverse conditions of life, it is very easy for each of us to start grumbling and complaining. We are all tempted to do so. We have to ask ourselves, "Is this grumbling and complaining going to help us along our Trek today?"

This reminds me of a time about 35 years ago when Paula and I would pick up an elderly lady Mrs. Borne every Sunday and take her to church. She was significantly crippled with arthritis, and it was difficult for her to walk and even get in the car. But, she faithfully came each week.  We would ask her how she was doing each time we picked her up, and she would go on about how difficult it was to get around and talk about her husband who had died many years before. But, she would always end her story with, "I’m not complaining, mind ya." Paula and I still jokingly use that phrase when we catch ourselves grumbling or complaining about something. As with most complaining, it is usually over something quite trivial.

Certainly complaining and grumbling are as old as mankind itself. One of the greatest leaders of all time, Moses, had to deal with a nation of complainers as they trekked through the wilderness for over 40 years because of their lack of belief that God would take care of them. This was the case with the children of Israel as indicated in Exodus 16:6-8 when they were complaining to Moses about his leadership and the lacking food and water, "So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, 'By evening you will realize it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?' Then Moses added, 'The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against the Lord, not against us.'”

If we are really honest with ourselves, when we find ourselves complaining, we are no different than the Hebrew nation. Ware actually complaining against God because we feel that our lot in life is unfair, which also shows a lack of faith on our part.

As we continue on our rough trail today, let’s look at 10 attitude adjustments that we can make in our thinking.

When you choose to change your attitude you switch your thinking from a defeatist mentality to one of ac...