An Attitude of Gratitude

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I really LOVE bible studies. I love love love them. I love them more than ice cream. I've been in so many bible studies you'd think I attend them as religiously as a drug addict attends AA. Which is actually a very good analogy for me since the reason I attend these bible studies is frankly because I am so messed up. It truly is my AA.
Thankfully (yes, thankfully) I am in a new one entitled "Lord change my Attitude" Obviously, this week I'm learning how to have an attitude of thankfulness.
So it has this exercise in it where you set your clock (or my case my iPhone alarm) and try to go for 24 hours without complaining. If you feel like complaining, or are tempted to complain you have to write a little tick mark in your journal, and hang your head as a failure. Not really that last one, but I probably will hang my head as a failure since I tend to take these exercises pretty seriously.
I have really noticed lately that I am a bit of a complainer. I complain about my house, my kids, my situations, my jobs, food, weather, clothes, etc etc etc. People in general are complainers, and we complain in groups too. Complaining is such an easy conversation starter. "Man it's hot/cold/rainy/snowy/tornadoey/earthquakey out there today." Another person says, "I know I wish it was colder/warmer/drier/wetter/less windy/less filled with mass destruction!" and there's your complaint. Our society (American that is) has complaining built into it's DNA. I mean. our forefathers started this country because they didn't like their situation and swam all the way from England to get away from it. I realize I'm minimizing the significance of that historic moment, but for the sake of my point it works.

So I think I'll run with this experiment, it's a good idea to try. I'm going to go for 24 hours and see if I can make it through the day without complaining once. It'll be good to challenge myself. I'll report back tomorrow on my findings.
Stay True
Alicia