Complain and Remain, Praise and Be Raised

I am currently reading a book called "Me and my Big Mouth!" by Joyce Meyer.  The title of chapter 6 is Complain and Remain, Praise and Be Raised.  It is a great book and if you want to work on controlling your mouth, I think you will find this book very helpful and encouraging. 

He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.  Proverbs 21:23

Complaining causes you to remain in your circumstances longer.  You don't realize how much you complain until you are made aware of it and you try to change it.  Complaining comes naturally for humans.  For example, does it seem like we always complain about Monday?  Why do Monday's have to be bad days?  Isn't every day that God breaths life into us a good day?  I think it's time for us to change our negative thinking as the world does and line up our thoughts with God's word.  I recently began telling people happy Monday at work and  you would be surprised that most people just look at me kind of funny and laugh.  It's always nice to make someone laugh so it was cool with me.  If they ask me how I'm doing on Monday mornings I say, "I love Mondays".  The more I hear myself say that, I actually believe it, maybe in time they will too.  I always tell my girls, "If you speak it, so it shall be."  Do you realize how much power your words have?  We can actually speak things into existence.  For the past week, I have been trying to avoid complaining and saying negative things in general.  I found out that I say a lot of negative things w/o even thinking twice about it.  I'm very critical and now that I'm trying to control my mouth, I realize that I have 3 girls that need to do the same.  They are little replica's of me and we all tend to complain without realizing it.  As a matter of fact, my husband is guilty too.  We have a lot of damage control to do.  We will take this bull by the horns one day at a time.  In the book, Joyce says that complaining is like whistling for the devil.  When I think about it that way, my mission of watching my mouth will be much easier.  I'm not about to allow the devil to use my own words against me.  That whole right to remain silent thing is beginning to take on a whole new meaning in my mind.  When it comes to complaining, the only thing I want to remain is silent.

Praise on the other hand raises you above your circumstances.  We must learn to praise God in every situation, good or bad.  So even though you may be having a bad day, no matter how you feel inside, when you speak on it, just say God is good and thank Him for another day.  On the other hand, when everything is going your way, don't forget to praise in these times as well.  Thanking God is a great way to praise Him.  Singing his praises is another way.  I sing lyrics from my favorite "positive" songs all the time.  I have a play list that I created especially for work appropriately titled, "Mellow Out".  It has songs on it like,

"Lord Give Me a Sign" by DMX--As long as the Lord's in my life I will have no fear.  A spoken word is stronger than the strongest man
"Waging War" by CeCe Winans--For your glory, we're taking territory, fighting unseen enemies like never before, we're waging war. 
"Praise Him in Advance" by Marvin Sapp--Praise will confuse the enemy.


On the other hand, quoting scripture is always good too.
 
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
The world didn't give it and the world can't take it away (paraphrased by me).
All things are possible through Him who gives me strength.
If He is for me, who can be against me?

Dancing is another form of praise.  My girls do praise dancing at church and it is so inspiring to see.  It penetrates my soul and even brings joyful tears to my eyes.  I get goosebumps and everything, it's a beautiful thing.  There is nothing like seeing children praise God in this way.  I will post a video of them dancing in the future.

In this world, we will never run out of things to complain about but on the same token we should praise Him anyhow.  Since I have been more aware of my mouth, there were a lot of things that I would normally complain about.  What I have found is that when I don't give in to the temptation to complain, things dissolve on their own and my sanity is still intact.  The choice is yours, you can complain and remain or praise and be raised.