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Friday, November 30, 2012

complaints.

 

Complaining is the absence of thankfulness. –Dale Partridge

So occasionally in my pointless time on the internet, I will find something worthwhile. I like to stalk read Dale Partridge’s blog. He started up and is the top guy at Sevenly. Sevenly is basically a company that features a different organization every week, each week, there is a new shirt/tote bag/sometimes iphone cover design and $7 of every purchase goes towards said charity.

Also he’s really good at pinterest.

Anyway, so I was reading the other day and saw this post: http://dalepartridge.com/sevenlys-complaining-room/

At the Sevenly offices they have a complaining room, which according to that post is actually more of a big closet.

Whenever someone complains they are sent to the complaining room and have to write their complain on the walls.     All over the walls are covered with pictures of people in developing countries, fighting diseases, suffering oppression, etc.

I know writing my “first world problems” on the face of a malnourished child would make me stop and think. Now I’m wishing I had a closet to convert into a complaining room…I could just make a big canvas collage of pictures to make more portable “room.” hmm..

But you know, we like to complain about how bad life is.

Look around.

Yes, there are terrible, horrible things.

But there are also a lot of great things.

Such as:

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Beaches and sunsets.

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Travel opportunities, mountains, volcanoes.

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Tea, Christmas.

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Joy, laughter, beauty amongst struggles.

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Water, boat rides, great views, mountains.

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Water, waterfalls, taking walks, autumn.

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Monopoly games, camera remotes, self portraits, family.

 

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Fall, comfy dresses, sunshine.

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Cameras, comfy jackets.

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and of course, cupcakes.

Life isn’t perfect, but there is always something to be thankful for. Always.

 

Also Sevenly is doing a 7 days of Christmas thing where for a week they bring back an old tshirt every day…I wouldn’t mind if anyone bought me one.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Counting Blessings.

Blessed. We really are, aren’t we? We like to pretend we are not, but we are, we really are.

I’ll go ahead and venture to say that most anybody reading this is blessed in the following ways:

  1. A place to live. An estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide. That doesn’t even include people living in bad conditions, or substandard housing.
  2.  Access to clean water. 780 million people lack access to clean water. That’s over 2.5 times the population of the United States.
  3.  Food. 15 million children die, each year, from hunger. 800 million people around the world suffer from hunger and starvation. An estimated 20,864 people will starve to death, today.
  4.  An education. Almost one billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or write their name.
  5. Freedom. Almost 1.5 billion people today live in Communist countries.

We too easily forget. If the internet is out for a day, I will complain. If I have to buy a tank of gas, I will complain. I should be thankful that I even have electricity—much less the internet. I should be thankful that I can afford to buy a tank of gas.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

This is the time of year when we all pretend to be a lot more thankful for things than we really are. Let’s make it real, and let’s make it last. Thankfulness should not be confined to one month of the year.

 

 

sources: http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/, http://www.statisticbrain.com/world-hunger-statistics/, http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats, http://geography.about.com/od/lists/tp/communistcountries.htm,