There are times in your life when you have to stand back and look at your surroundings. You need to take stock of the life you have and the people you share it with. Are you happy with the people in your life? Do they add to your life, or try to drag you down? Many times we spend our days looking at other people and trying to measure up to what they think we should be or we look at their life and think we would be happier if only... But you should never measure your happiness by what others think. You shouldn't look at others and think that you would be happier if only you were more like them. Every ones life is different and we all have our own unique struggles. Even people who always seems happy and content on the outside has something in their life they wish they could change, or a battle that they deal with. This morning I was talking to a couple of ladies in our Sunday school class and I'm not sure how we got on the subject, but they were talking about how they didn't keep in touch with an old friend because that person always complained about how bad their life was. I have been guilty of being a complainer, I think we all have at some point in our lives, but I would like to think there are more times that I try to look at the up side of things. I have always been one of those people though that tends to attract people that want to tell me how horrible their life is and how life has been so unfair to them. This tends to rub off on you after a while. Maybe I walk around with a sign on me that says, tell me all your problems. I think friends should be able to tell each other anything. You should be able to help each other through hard times, but also be able to have fun times and enjoy each others company. Now there is a fine line between helping each other through hard times and listening to your friend complain about their spouse. If you are having problems with your spouse and you have done everything you can to take care of it between you and your spouse a friend can be a shoulder to lean on. But you should always lift your spouse up in front of others and I admit this is something I am working on. I have always been the wife that teases my husband in public but until recently I didn't realize that this wasn't the way God would want me to behave towards my husband in public. My husband is a wonderful man. He has always made sure that his family has had everything we needed and he works very hard for a living. He is a man that has put God first in his life and is a wonderful example to his children of what a true Godly husband should be. We laugh and tease each other and have always been so comfortable doing that together until I never truly looked at how others may view the things we say about each other in public. They don't know the things we have gone through together or the fact that our teasing is just that and nothing more. As I have thought about people I talk to and listen to I have realized that there are many people out there that constantly complain about their spouse. How they don't listen or they leave things laying around the house. We all have our faults and the last thing we need is someone calling them to our attention or worse yet telling everyone we know about our bad habits.
Now here is another one of those pesky challenges I throw out from time to time. Remember I am a work in progress and these are things I am challenging myself to do as well. This week take a good look around at the company you keep. Do your friends constantly complain? Do they tear their spouse down in front of others? Are you one of those people? This week when you hear a person complaining try to change the subject to something more pleasant. If they are tearing their spouse down and pointing out all the things they can't do right, don't just sit and listen. This only encourages the behavior. Instead try to point out that this is the person that they chose to spend their life with and ask would they really trade all those bad habits for a life without that person? A marriage is always worth fighting for and bad habits or little things that irritate you would never cross your mind if that person wasn't in your life. I have never heard a spouse that has lost their other half complain about a dirty sock in the floor or a burned dinner. The only things that were ever remembered were the good things. This week start a new habit. Only talk about the good things when talking about your spouse with others. Because other people will remember the bad things when all you can ever remember were the good. Isn't that how we all want to be remembered? For the good things?
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