"Don't complain and talk about all your problems—80% of people don't care;
the other 20% will think you deserve them." (Mark Twain)
A cowboy was driving down a country road, listening to his favorite tunes on the radio. His dog was in the bed of his pickup and his faithful horse was in the trailer behind. All was well until he missed a curve. His truck veered off the road and hit soft dirt, causing it to roll over. When the dust settled the cowboy, dog and horse were lying out on the ground near the wreckage, and very seriously hurt. Sometime later, a highway patrol officer came on the scene. He saw the horse lying beside the trailer. Realizing the serious nature of its injuries and not wanting to see it suffer, he drew his 9 mm revolver and put the animal out of its misery. A moment later he found the dog. He couldn't bear to hear the poor beast whine in pain, so he ended the dog's suffering as well. Finally he located the cowboy, who had multiple bone fractures. "Hey, man, are you okay?" the trooper asked the injured man. The cowboy took one look at the smoking revolver the officer held in his hand, and with all the strength he could gather he quickly replied, "I have never felt better in my whole life!" Sometimes we need a little motivation in helping us take the positive road in our journey.
Griping and complaining is unbecoming and in fact very dangerous to us. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale explains why, “There is a law known as the law of attraction which says that like attracts like, so if you constantly send out negative thoughts you tend to bring back to yourself negative results. The negative person constantly sends out into the world negative thoughts, activating the world around them negatively.” The opposite is true of a positive person. “Realize that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have time to do something about it” (Anthony J. D’Angelo).
Complaint is the highest form of ingratitude we offer to God for His care of us. Overcoming the flesh is difficult but possible, and it is a required course in the school of life that we must pass. “He cannot complain of a hard sentence, who is made master of his own fate” (Johann Friedrich Von Schiller). We generate negative or positive energy in our lives by what we think and say—so let us take the high road.
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