Stop murmuring!

Philippians 2:14-15 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world...

Ahh if you could have only been in Bible Study this morning. The girls and I are meandering through the Book of Philippians via a Kay Arthur study. As is inevitable when discussing the previous week's events, we get a little slack. We get a little lazy, complacent, and--okay, we whine sometimes. There. I said it.

We discuss the needs in our lives, in our spiritual walks, and then we write down on a sticky note our special prayer requests. At the end of the meeting, we each take one of these and are supposed to pray over that concern. Realizing we have been brought up better than to just whine and complain, one of the ladies mentioned she had taken part in the "Thankful Challenge" that has been going on on Facebook. A couple of us had already participated but we decided as a group to list three things we are thankful for over the next seven days and report back at our next meeting. I went ahead and told Linda to go ahead and put me at the top of her list.wink emoticon I'm just helpful that way.

Later, we all went to lunch and I must say, I was a bit saddened that we had so quickly lost our fervor--myself included. Either the burgers were too done or the potato salad had celery seeds in it or the food wasn't brought out at the same time. Yep, that quickly we had forgotten our decision to stop murmuring and to be more thankful. Sigh. No wonder we need a Saviour! Having accountability partners is well and good--as long as we take each other seriously.

So, here's what I am determining to do today for the next week--in addition to the Thankful Challenge: I am going to be bold. I am going to sweetly remind my sisters in Christ when they are being immature. Not in a mean way and not in a judgmental way. There's plenty of that out there and it certainly shouldn't come from my lips. I am going to be a stronger friend and casually but confidently remind them of the lessons we have learned and should be applying. My hope is that they will love me enough to do the same.

It's time we grow up, folks. Time to get real and stop playing church. We don't have time for it and the world needs lights in this world. We need to be blameless and stop turning people off with our poor behavior. How do we expect others to see Jesus in us if we aren't portraying Him in a favorable light? We can't if we refuse to put into practice the things we have been taught. I'm ready! Who's with me? smile emoticon