I always find it interesting when people complain about others, and then do the same exact thing. After I was saved, I read through the Bible for a year. For the first time, I understood some of it. Before that, it was just Greek to me.

As I went through Exodus, I found myself saying to God, Dude, what was up with your people? Look at them complaining in the wilderness about a lack of food and saying at least there were pots of meat back in captivity. True, there were pots of meat…BUT THEY WERE SLAVES, those dorks! Geez God, what’s up with them?

That’s about the time I felt God saying to me, You do the same thing, only with different issues. You’re no different. Oh crud! I do, don’t I? That was a turning point for me. I started trying to apply the scripture of Matthew 7:3-5

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Sometimes in leadership, or just plain life, we find it very easy to complain about other people. I can’t believe so and so isn’t getting that stuff done! Then, when you ask that person to do something, it’s always, Oh, I don’t have time to do that. How about when someone complains about another person not having a good system for running things? If it’s that bad, why haven’t you come up with a better plan?

I have a friend who every once in a while complains about the people she works with. The funny thing is that I’ve seen her do the same exact stuff for years. I gently remind her of a similar situation when she acted the same, and she looks at me like I’m crazy. Oh well.

We might not be able to fix all of those around us, but we certainly can start with the plank in our own eye. Before you start to complain about someone else, ask yourself if you do the same thing. In fact, how about just not complaining at all? It will make your day a lot better.

Question: Do you find yourself slipping into the easy habit of complaining?

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