If you must complain, do it with grace

April 24, 2017 | 13 comments

“Complain if you must, but don’t lash out. Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking.

“Build your case before God and wait for his verdict.”

~ Psalms 4:4,5, The Message

13 thoughts on “If you must complain, do it with grace”

  1. Most grateful, dear Evan, for today`s post!
    Regrettably i tend to lash out sometimes, when somebody said something to me, I don`t like at all. Its not always easy for me to shut up my mouth, but am working on it.

    It might be something against CS or somthing about myself, which is not christly. Or somebody says “make it good”. Here in Germany it is a jargon, and I take it by word, and thats no good.

    You are so right, Evan, I have to shut my mouth, be still, and pray that God takes the situation over and wait for his verdict. Oh, thats best of all – am very grateful that you open up our mind for right the thing to do.

    The lesson sermon is also so helpful every week – thank God for it 🙂

  2. Your post today reminds me of …”Instead of reacting we need to respond with love.” Its always so good to take things to God and turn to Him for guidance and comfort. Lashing out really does not help. Its giving into error and making a God out of it. Instead, if we remain calm, take our case to the one Mind, God good, the best solution comes out. Since one Mind God good, governs all of us, the same Mind guides and leads to harmony, blessing all concerned.
    Its very important to understand. “Mind is God the exterminator of error.” “God is the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving.” If God sees all, knows all and all action comes from Him…We need to be very calm and totally depend on Him, instead of taking things in our hands…”Be Still and know that I AM GOD”. So friends lets be still, calm and see the salvation of God..The justice which He can do… Our lashing out cannot do..

  3. Yes, good, as always. Thank you, Evan.

    Indeed, to re-ACT to (any) mortal mind error/illusion is the same as saying, aloud or to ourselves: God is not all! And we sure don’t want to do this! It would counter our prayer of affirming God’s infinite Allness and goodness and all-power! How counter-productive this would be. Of course, in truth, such erroneous comments, thoughts and actions are illusive in themselves, as not God-impelled or created. But, in this so-called “human realm,” we have to prove this, step-by-loving-step. And we are, and can, and do!

    ONward, Christians!

  4. Wow, if only the NBA players could read this post. What a difference that would make in their game. 🙂 This is just a wonderful compact sweet idea that ends with a gift of divine guidance and a knock out punch to the error of loss self control. Thank you Evan.

  5. Thank you, Evan. I’m learning to not react, but hold my peace and love the “real” person, not the caricature that is presented. Sometimes it seems difficult, but it is so rewarding when I do it correctly. “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,” and when we reflect Him we can’t see any erroneous behavior and believe it is real—not in ourselves or others.

  6. Thank you, Evan and all commenters!
    I learned long before I became a CS to not respond with anger! At least for me, I found I had often misunderstood the other persons intent! Daphne was so correct in her response to see God’s child in the other individual. Where I need to be vigilant is to actually do that instead of feeling mortal mind errors of resentment etc. sometimes when we don’t open the front door when mm knocks- it crawls in through a window. I need to upgrade my security system and know and acknowledge God and God only is Mind which acts but not react! Love you guys!!

    1. Upgrading my security system; what a great way to say, shine a LIGHT from God on each temptation MM sends; then STAND on the LIGHT STAND, til that security system protects and guides all, to see God. Thank you for your contribution Patty, it helped at a very troubling time.

  7. Wonderful message Evan. Daphne, your comment states Truth short & to the point: ” “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,” and when we reflect Him we can’t see any erroneous behavior and believe it is real—not in ourselves or others.” And Patty, loved your comment “Where I need to be vigilant is to actually do that instead of feeling mortal mind errors of resentment etc. sometimes when we don’t open the front door when mm knocks- it crawls in through a window. I need to upgrade my security system and know and acknowledge God and God only is Mind which acts but not react!”

    You all are so loved for your uplifting comments.

  8. Thank you Evan and THANKS to everyone for your comments. I love how the comments always focus additional inspiration on Evan’s original post.

    A few weeks ago it occurred to me that a good goal for living is the same as the objective Mrs. Eddy gave for establishing the Christian Science Monitor:

    “To injure no man, but to bless all mankind.”

    It’s so temping to figuratively “step” on someone else as a means of trying to rise higher in our own self-esteem. By that I mean reacting negatively to someone either to their face or behind their back when we feel we have been wronged…or just out of self-righteousness. Or simply being impatient with another person. If we do need to provide constructive criticism to someone else, there is always a loving way to do that. It just takes some effort to find that loving way to say what we want to say, but the benefits of doing that far surpass the effort required.

    Josef, I couldn’t agree with you more! If even one NBA star could only curtail the “trash talking” and instead react in a loving way when fouled during a game, just imagine the ripple affect that example would have throughout the inner cities of the United States…and beyond!

  9. What a great quote and idea. I have been trying to do exactly this the last week, but was confused in how to proceed. I feel like this blogpost is a direct response to how I should move forward. Taking it to God makes me feel so much better than feeling like I need to formulate some master plan. God will reveal his plan for this. I can just patiently trust this. What a relief. Thank you Evan and to the other great comments.

Leave a Reply to Trista Cancel reply

Keep the conversation going! Your email address will not be published.

*