No Whining Allowed!

If you know me at all I tend to whine and complain an awful lot. As I have gotten older I have gotten better about it, but I still can be extremely negative and complain about everything. It's not something that I am particularly happy about, but it is something that I try to work on every day. Today has been an extremely whinny day today. I have complained from the moment I hit my snooze button this morning to right now while I am sitting at work. Every little thing has been making me whine today and I finally had some time to sit down and just think and this is what hit me- the whining and complaining has got to stop and it needs to stop now.

As I was realizing this, I was thinking about how Facebook connects to my constant complaining. I tell people all the time that I use my Facebook as a form of witnessing by sharing Bible verses, song lyrics, blog posts etc. And it is true that I do do this. But what I realized this afternoon was I also use Facebook as my personal whine center to share with the world whatever I need to complain about for the moment. All day I have wanted to put something up as my status along the lines of "I am grumpy. I have a migrane. And we had a pop quiz in Anatomy that I bombed. Cool." But I didn't want to because I couldn't find a way to put a positive spin on it. I never would have thought about this before I gave up Facebook for Lent this year. I would have just thrown up the status and let the Marissa Pity Party begin. But not anymore.

I am not saying that it is wrong for me to have bad days and I have to be captain perky pants all the time. But at the same time- I don't need to complain about it to all my friends and family 24/7. When someone asks how I am my response does not always have to start with "This is why my day has been crappy so far.... But I am great other than that."Do I need to be real with people? Yes. Can I tell people when I am having a bad day? Yes. But does it need to be the center of my world anymore? No. And I am choosing for it not to be.

So here is my resolution- My Facebook will no longer be a place of complaining or whining. There will be no more dumb status updates about how sick I feel or how much I hate Anatomy. I want my life to be a reflection of the hope and joy that Jesus has given me. Not the struggles that I face everyday. 

If you take nothing else from this post, think about this: What kind of reflection is your life to others? Are you shining the hope of Jesus? Or spreading the dispare and unhappiness of the world? What simple things can you do to try and stop complaining and start living in hope?