Isn't it ok to complain?

If you're reading this then you likely have already seen me post these verses on other social media today. They happen to be some of my favorite verses to quote to my kids but some of the hardest to practice myself! So very hard!

Don't I have every stinkin' right to argue, grumble, and complain when life is hard? Won't you cut me some slack when life is just so hard that nothing is going as I planned and I am seriously trying to do and be the right mom/wife/teacher?  Can I even help it if it just slips out? Everyone complains! Am I seriously supposed to do what these verses say?

We underestimate God's supernatural power and the indwelling Holy Spirit when we mistakingly think complaining, arguing, and grumbling are something we can't help doing! WE certainly can't be so selfless, but Christ always is.  He wants to help us be like Him.  We are His ambassadors, his representatives, the models of Him. Come to think of it, I can't remember a single story from The Gospels where Jesus complained about what His Father had sent Him to do. 

Bottom line: when I argue and complain and bicker and second guess then I misrepresent Christ. He simply isn't like that. 

Bottom line: sometimes you have to choose to overrule what you feel and behave differently. Sometimes you have to do the hard thing!

But why? 

I think it's because our most grand calling is to be "living proof" of God's redemptive power. Even when nothing's going my way, even if I'm devastated, even when my kids aren't perfect, even when there's more month than money, even when I have more to do than time to do it, even when every hormone in my house is out of control, even when the other person did the wrong thing, even when...

God still readily and cheerfully redeems, and my life should be living proof. Oh how I want all of life to be worth something so holy...living proof of redemption!

So it's time to do the hard thing...do everything cheerfully and readily, no bickering or second guessing allowed. Be the breath of fresh air in the squalid and polluted world.

You have my permission to call me on this!