Why it’s important to not make things harder than they are …

Close to half of the world is on some kind of social media platform. Log into your favorite and on most days you’ll see some kind of post or meme of someone complaining about something that is very easy.

A comment about not wanting to wash the dishes.

A gripe about how much they hate doing their laundry.

A complaint about needing to cook dinner.

A grumble about once again needing to mow the lawn.

These and other comments are gripes about some of the most simple things we could possibly need to do!

Washing dishes is easy!

Doing laundry is not hard!

There’s nothing painful about cooking dinner!

And there’s nothing negative about mowing the lawn!

But people still gripe.

A big reason why that’s a problem is this: When we make in our minds the small, easy things to be big, hard things, we’re teaching ourselves to be less capable of responding well to the things that are really big and hard.

You might think that is silly, but it’s not. When we tell ourselves over and over again that simple, easy things are hard, unpleasant, etc., we condition ourselves to not respond well — at least mentally and emotionally, often spiritually and physically as well — to simple, easy things. So when we teach ourselves that the easy is hard, the truly hard can more easily be overwhelming.

That’s a contributing factor as to why so many people have struggled mightily with the circumstances of a pandemic. While some people have thrived having more time with spouses and children, and more time for other things that they often didn’t have time for, others have made such simple things to be very hard.

All because of how they have conditioned themselves to complain about the little, easy things in life.

It’s no wonder that we read in scripture:

“Do everything without complaining and arguing,”‭‭ Philippians‬ ‭2:14‬.

“And don’t grumble …” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:10a.

Not only does scripture exhort us to not complain or grumble, we are directly instructed to do this: “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus,”‭‭ 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:18‬.

Not only does complaining make little things hard, it blinds us to how God has provided for us and for so much that we have to be thankful for like clothes to wash, food to cook, a home with a lawn to mow. Griping and grumbling and complaining makes life harder, and our hearts less grateful.

A final note — even when the really big, truly difficult things come around, we still have much to be thankful for, such as the faithfulness and grace of God who never abandons us.

Do you make the easy things in your life harder than they really are? How could your life improve if you stopped doing that? Have you learned to be thankful in all circumstances? How could your life be better if you focused more on what you have to be thankful for?

Scotty