Monday, January 4, 2010

Different Choir, Different Tune

How we respond to difficulties will determine whether we are a winner or a whiner. One of Satan’s first temptations when our life appears to be on hold like Joseph is to tempt us to live by feelings instead of faith. Michael Youssef

If you’re around people long enough it doesn’t take much to figure out if they are a winner or a whiner. To some the task of whining comes as natural as their ability to breath. Everything out of their mouths are a negative response to something going on around them. Because of their actions they begin to feel their lives have been put on hold like how Joseph must have felt happened when he heard of Mary’s pregnancy.

The result of this behavior is we find ourselves innocently walking head first into Satan’s trap of temptation as he gets us to live by fickle feelings instead of our faith. In the place of doing what is better in God’s eyes we walk right into our whining as we find ourselves following our feelings as if some kind of pitchpipe giving us our cue.

Everywhere we turn the route of complaining is there. For example, the traffic light on the street doesn’t turn green soon enough for us so we whine. The line at the grocery story isn’t short enough so we whine. The day is getting longer than what we were capable of handling so we whine.

What may have started out a simple temptation becomes a regular past-time as it becomes our first and sometimes only choice. Something I heard on the news the other day just proved my point. The news reporters were talking about a new choir being formed. It was one people could start their own branch of or join one already formed.

The name of the choir was called the “Complaint Choir.” The object of the choir was to give people a chance to put their complaints to music. To those reporting this it was a way of turning a negative into a positive. The founders thought it was best to not just whine it but sing it. Repeatedly they encouraged people to join this new art of turning a complaint into something new.

Instead of teaching people how to be thankful they thought it was best to teach them how to properly complain. Sitting down to try it for myself I got my first verse to the tune of “Oh da do dah day,” or was the title “Camp Town Races?”Anyway here it goes: “Everyone else gets to work from home but I can’t, I can’t. Why can’t I do what the others get to do, oh da do daw day. Going to complain all day, going to complain all night. I want to work from my home today instead of driving to work always!”
The time and energy I used to try and come up with my lyrics for my complaint choir to sing I could have spent writing or singing praises to the Lord. Since we will be praising God for all eternity now is a good time to start. Start by taking the responsibility of converting situations we are tempted to complain about into ones full of rich blessings simply by the turn of our attitude.

Before we know it if we do it enough we find ourselves walking forward by faith instead of lagging behind with our feelings.Winners are winners because they choose to be in their attitudes. Whiners just like to whine for lack of better things to do. Which we choose to be is strictly up to us. As a song writer I better not quit my day job because I’d never make it but as one who praises God I can be as good as I choose to be giving praises to the King of Kings as I live out my gratitude in all I say and do. Definitely a different choir with a different tune. Not a new idea but one that will be around for all eternity, Praise the Lord!

Get out your pitchpipe and start today warming up for your spot in this chorus of chorus!


© 2010 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing & hosting. I did not see a Mr. Linky?!?! Sorry I am late in posting. You will see by my post . . . why.

Tami said...

We've got to focus on the Truth of God's Word, not our "fickle feelings," as you said, Karen. Amen. Satan's good at tempting us, but we can learn to resist by practicing.

I will work at singing a new tune. Thanks.

Sarah said...

What a great way to look a this quote!! I look forward to when this tone deaf girl can sing praises to her Savior in a beautiful heavenly voice. Till then I will sing with the voice I have.

Debbie Petras said...

What a fun way to get over complaining; singing it. LOL. I loved this quote Karen. Thank you for hosting and for your take on this one. I pray that I'm a winner and not a whiner.

Blessings,
Debbie

Chocolate and Coffee said...

Thanks for hosting IOW today. What a great quote. Blessings!

Susan said...

Great quote Karen, so full of truth.

Really hit home for me. Something we all can fall into easily.

Praise God for the TRUTH and Grace God offers us.

Blessings!