Works for Me Wednesday–Confessions of a Recovering Gripe-r

It is so easy to get into a negative funk. Sometimes it’s justified…more often it’s not. That’s why I signed on to Ann Voskamp’s “One Thousand Gifts”—to give me a reason to turn around my natural tendency to gripe. I know I’m not the only one who has this problem. (I’ll start. Hello, my name is Kate, and I’m a recovering gripe-r!)

Corrie Ten Boom tells a story from the concentration camp at Ravensbruck where she and her sister Betsie were imprisoned for hiding Jews in Holland. As they land in a barracks too horrible to mention—rotten straw, severe overcrowding, and fleas—Betsie reminds her that I Thessalonians says “Give thanks in all circumstances,” and promptly thanks God for the fleas.

Right there, Corrie howls, Now wait just one minute! I am NOT thanking God for fleas! But her sister prevails—after all, the Bible passage says thank God for all things. As time goes by, they can’t figure out why the guards never come in their barracks.  It gives them incredible freedom to hold Bible studies with the contraband Bible they smuggled into the camp. And then, they discover that it is the fleas that keep the guards away.

Now, doesn’t that just get under your skin and make you squirm?

This is not the first time I’ve chronicled my struggles to turn around a bad attitude, but a couple days ago, staring down the barrel of another bad night with sick kids, it occurred to me that sometimes the positive is in the negative. We just have to look at it that way.

For instance:

Thank you, God, that on the night I stuck the bread in the oven and forgot to turn the oven on, I remembered it at 10p.m., and NOT at 3a.m.

Thank you, God, that because I’ve felt so queasy from my metformin reaction, I have NOT been pigging out on Halloween candy.

Thank you, God, that when Nicholas got the croup, he did NOT have to go to the hospital.

Thank you, God, that when Julianna went to the hospital with the croup, she did NOT have to go to the PICU.

Thank you, God, that despite my bad attitude, the kids did NOT wake up the last two nights…at all! (Holy cow! Is that sleeping through the night????)

….Got the idea? Let’s hear some of yours, fellow gripe-rs!

P.S., This post is linked to “Works For Me Wednesday,” hosted by “WeareTHATfamily.com.