Bracelet Wearing Update

Well, this attitude bracelet thing gets interesting. 

I just picked up a couple stray elastic wrist bands I saw laying around the house.  They don’t have any scriptures or anything on them, but I really just wanted it to be easy and…pretty.  I’m wearing a sparkly one of three turquise beaded, glassy-looking ones Goldilocks got for herself for Christmas and another with purple cheap rhinestones…a couple of them have fallen out, but that’s okay.  It’s comfortable and easy to slip on and off.  I’m wearing two, mainly because I keep finding them.   

Yesterday, I didn’t have to switch it once.  My attitude was fine.  Problem was, my attitude was fine because I was having fun.  My scrapbook kit for school years came and I had so much fun reminiscing Red’s preschool years.  My…how he’s growing!

Today is a work day.  I don’t have a generalized bad attitude, but I find myself thinking, “I’m bored.  Isn’t there something else, more “fun work” I can be doing right now?”  How self-defeating and “negative” those thoughts are!  Much to do, and I’m moving SO SLOWLY today. 

If I turn the thought around and keep working, I don’t have to switch my bracelet.  I can’t stop the thoughts, but I can change them:  “I will do it because it’s my work”.

I’m switching it to the other wrist right now because I stopped my work and stopped to blog.  It’s very effective.

How’s it going for you?  Tried it yet?

Thoughts on “A Complaint-Free World”

I made this cool little sidebar icon for those of you interested for a “Complaint Free Movement” reminder.  (To install to your sidebar, click: How to Install a Photo to Sidebar Using WordPress Text Widgets)

I wanted a verse.  The perfect verse for me was the same verse I’d given my second grade Sunday School class for emphasis:  “I want you to SHINE LIKE STARS IN THE UNIVERSE!”  And…I forgot the rest of the verse, the part I needed!  Ouch!  I NEED Philippians 2:14-16!

Meditations from Philippians 2:14-16:

1. My job assignment is NOT to make the world a positive place.  My job is to “hold out the word of life” effectively, according to Matthew 28:  The Great Commission, that is, without grumbling and complaining. 
2. To have Christ working in me is that only way it’s possible, and only for the right reasons is it possible: Jesus Christ working in us because he loves the world.
3. Don’t sacrifice at the altar of peace.  Grace AND truth walk hand in hand for the believer.  Give “the word of life” in gentle, loving, caring, inspired, and creative ways.  That challenge is what makes the Christian walk so exciting for me!!! 
4. Am I reading this right?  Can complaining and arguing REALLY create a crooked and depraved people?  Thinking hard, for the Israelites, that was the case.  God delivered them from Egyptian captivity.  But, when grumbling and complaining spread through the camp like a disease, it caused mass chaos every time, turning their hearts away from The One who had just delivered them.  All he wanted from them was their worship, their thanksgiving, faith, and trust.  We infect each other still today.
5. We are not cut from a different fabric from the Israelites today.  Without Christ to make us new, we are the same grumbling people who cannot worship our saving God to save our lives.  Literally.

“so that you will BECOME blameless and pure…in which you shine like lights in the universe as you hold out the world of life”… 

Who knew that one small discipline could yield so much benefit?  This verse makes me want to look at ALL my disciplines as a whole again, taking them seriously to see how my neglect of them doesn’t just affect ME…it also dims His light shining through me.  Lord, discipline me, to your glory and fame!