How To ThriveSample

How To Survive THRIVE - Spiritually

Day 4:  You Grow When Your Gratitude Exceeds Your Complaining

Did you know that doing what the Bible says can actually make you healthy? With today’s medical and technological advances, we often find that the ancient wisdom of Scripture is backed by science.

For example, God’s Word is full of instructions to give thanks. From the Psalms to the New Testament, gratitude and thanksgiving are recurring instructions on how to go through life. Why does God want us to be grateful?

“A complaining tongue reveals an ungrateful heart.” - William Arthur Ward

What do you complain about?

The government, taxes, politics?

Your family, your boss, your job?

I often complain about all the little things I do for our family that seem to go unnoticed. Ironically, what I am complaining about is a lack of gratitude from those around me.

Research from Stanford University has shown that complaining shrinks the hippocampus—an area of the brain that’s critical to problem solving and intelligent thought. 

While it’s not an exaggeration to say that complaining leads to brain damage, it doesn’t stop there. When you complain, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol. One effect of cortisol, for example, is to raise your blood pressure and blood sugar. All the extra cortisol released by frequent complaining impairs your immune system and makes you more susceptible to high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. It even makes the brain more vulnerable to strokes.

Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the right thing to do; it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%.

Just like smoking, drinking too much, and lying on the couch watching TV all day; complaining is bad for you. 

And the antidote to complaining, from science to Scripture, is to be grateful.

Look back at the list of things that you complain about. Can you find something to be grateful for instead?

Every time you catch yourself complaining, ask God to help you grow by noticing something you can thank Him for instead.

Written by Jess Basson | UMH \ \ PM Pastor