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The Antidote to Grumbling
Have you noticed how sometimes it can feel good to commiserate with a friend and complain together? After all, doesn’t the saying go “Misery loves company? ”
It is too easy to fall into the habit of complaining. Some Bible translations use the word “grumbling.” It’s when we aren’t content with something. And usually, when we fall into the habit of grumbling about something, we have fallen out of the habit of praying for that same thing.
That annoying neighbor.
My spouse’s irritating habit.
That friend who is often late.
The troublesome child.
The parent who is not sensitive.
We may even forget that we are sometimes the offending party!
Sometimes, we grumble because we feel like our life or circumstances are unfair to us and that we deserve more, that we deserve better, that we are somehow better than the people about whom we grumble and complain.
Yet, what if I looked at my grumbling to ask: in what ways am I not perfect? Where do I need to grow? Perhaps grumbling can become an opportunity to learn more about our own shortcomings and we can become more like Jesus.
Perhaps in those moments, we can pray this prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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