If I were mature

"Refuse to make a habit of complaining to God. It's a joy killer." - from Alex Himaya's sermon, 4/5/09, The Church at BattleCreek

I have been asking myself lately, "What if I responded to this situation as if I were a mature Christian?" If I can imagine an honest response, one that I consider mature, I try to act it out. Why not? Terry Maxwell has a chapter from one of her homeschooling books called "Hard Work and Dying to Self." I have reached several points in life where just this title was useful to me. Maxwell struggled with depression for years and years, and one of her pieces of advice was to smile, put on a good face for your family, even when you don't feel like it. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink, cites research that concludes that the way you hold your face can determine your emotion. Researchers, in trying to catalog facial expressions, found that days spent making sad or angry faces actually produced those emotions in them, no matter how they were feeling when they began. There is real value to acting out what you know, instead of acting out what you feel.

So if I am making myself up as I go along, I think I'll try for a happier me, a more mature me...a me that I respect. I am rather attached to whining and complaining, but hey, if this new spin doesn't work, I'm sure whining and complaining will still be available to me. Has anyone ever forgotten how to wield those two?