Lamenting vs. Grumbling

This past Saturday I participated in an all day women's conference (complete with spa treatments!) at our church. The speaker was radio host/DJ Kim Jeffries. (Anybody remember her from KS95, 94.5 FM, back in Jr. High?) She became a believer a number of years ago and presented some wonderful teaching about our identity in Christ, as well as the stories our lives tell about God and who He is. She identified the difference between lamenting and complaining/grumbling.

Lamenting is all about crying out to God in the midst of our struggles. It's about being real and honest about our pain, but when we lament, we also hang on to the hope and belief that God is good will be faithful. As one friend put it, it means that while we acknowledge a painful situation, we don't camp on the negative indefinitely.

Grumbling, however, is camping on the negative. It involves complaining to the degree that we lose our thankfulness for what God has done for us, and we stop putting our hope in God--we stop believing that God is out for our good. (The Israelites were the example here.)

Lord, in my struggles, may I be one who laments and not one who grumbles! May I be real as I walk through dark valleys without painting a dark picture of God Himself. I can think of a number of friends who are excellent models of this. One such dear friend has been on bedrest as I type.

I think I'll share more about this in another post, but Kim Jeffries had us all do a helpful exercise to teach us how to "give a good report about God" in our difficult circumstances. Yes, I'll write more about that later! Stay tuned!