Complaining

I love Fridays.  On Fridays, it is cleaning day...well, let me rephrase that.  I love the end product of Fridays.  The process isn't so fun.  Lately my son has decided that his process of cleaning is going to be a long and tortuous one.  It starts at the beginning.  He will work painfully slow to clean his room.  When I tell him to speed it up, the complaining begins.  He never makes all the mess, you see, and his body always begins to hurt during cleaning, and if no one helps him then he will not be able to complete the task.  I'm getting aggravated just typing out his complaints!!!  It was getting old!  I didn't like putting time limits on it and if he didn't finish he wouldn't be able to participate in fun family time.  So I decided it was time to address the issue at heart......COMPLAINING!!  I pulled out my Child Training Bible and we had a heart to heart before we even started cleaning.  We went through the complaining section and got to Colossians 3:17 - And whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  We talked about how we should be giving thanks for all the things we are given that we have to clean.  So we started looking around his trashed bedroom and listing things he was thankful for.  Then we talked about how we are given these things that we are thankful for and how we should take care of them to show that we are grateful.  This entire talk got both of us pumped up (because to be honest, cleaning toilets and vacuuming all day doesn't always sound exciting and I can complain that I have to do it all).  We decided the best way was to crank up some Pandora Contemporary Christian music and worship while we worked!  Man did we have a blast!  He cleaned so fast and so efficiently and I was cleaning the other room and we were both belting out the songs as we cleaned.  We all do this more than we want to admit.  Complain!  It is easy to complain when we are inconvenienced, but going to situations with a thankful heart, can change everything!  If you are having problems like me at home with complaining, show them how the Word of God tells us to handle our words and deeds......give thanks!
My son actually came home from church this week with a stop sign that he made in Sunday School.  On one side it said stop and the other is said Give Thanks!  I told him that we would hold onto that as a visual when we would rather complain than give thanks so that we can "make the switch" by turning our sign over and be reminded to give thanks!