Tag Archives: happiness

“…I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed” (Psalm 77:3).

A monk joined a monastery and took a vow of silence. After the first ten years his superior called him in and asked, “Do you have anything to say?” The monk replied, “Food bad.” After another ten years the monk again had opportunity to voice his thoughts. He said, “Bed hard.” Another ten years went by and again he was called in before his superior. When asked if he had anything to say, he responded, “I quit.” “It doesn’t surprise me a bit,” said his superior, “You’ve done nothing but complain ever since you got here.”

A characteristic of ungratefulness is murmuring and complaining.

One author writes “There is a ’secret to happiness,’ and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”

Another author says, “I used to think people complained because they had a lot of problems. But I have come to realize that they have problems because they complain. Complaining doesn’t change anything or make situations better. It amplifies frustration, spreads discontent and discord, and can invoke an invitation for the devil to cause havoc with our lives.”

Complaining makes us miserable.

Paul exhorts us to “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” (Philippians 2:14-15).

Morris Hull
Home Life Ministries

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“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

According to a seventy-year study, divorce is comparable to two packs of cigarettes a day. The study found that those divorced had a 40% greater risk of “premature death” than those who were steadily married. Another recent study claims that divorce can actually increase your chances of terminal cancer! And divorced men were also found to be twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease than their married counter-parts.

An interesting survey was taken of 3,500 couples whose marriages were in trouble: of those who chose to stay together despite the fact that they had rated their marriages as “very unhappy,” 86% rated those same marriages as “very happy” or “quite happy” five years later. Yet so many people today are willing to give up on their marriages without any effort to try and communicate and resolve their problems.

Communication is the only means for resolving conflicts in a marriage. Refusing to deal with the problems in your marriage or walking away from them will not make you happy. It only presents you with a new set of problems that are very much worse.

Don’t give up on that relationship. Be prepared to talk and communicate with your spouse. Be prepared to back down and humble yourself. Be prepared to forgive and to ask forgiveness when you are wrong.

The happiness you seek is not found somewhere else, but it is the reward of all the time and energy and effort that you are willing to invest to make your marriage work.

Morris Hull
Home Life Ministries

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