How Grateful Are You?

Many a times I have adjudged myself and others from the stance of Israelites in the bible, this is because the biblical Israelites come across to me as very ungrateful bunch.  The Israelites gives every appearance of being good and true to its purpose until they are put to a trial.  They have been found to fail God often during their period of trial or pressure whilst Gods focus and concern is immensely on them as a result of His promises and faithfulness. Yet the Biblical Israelites are forgetful, Hypocritical, unsatisfied, ungrateful, unappreciative and I can go on and on. Why do I choose to check myself with their behavioral pattern you may ask, because I see it manifest at all times in people’s behavior and so I am conscious not to act similarly towards others.

A story is been told of a community that decided to generate its own electricity without the unreliable Power Holding Company in Nigeria. So a group of men and women in that community sacrificed themselves to do the initial findings of the cost of purchasing a 1000 KVA generator, to be able to generate twenty four hours electricity. After their initial findings they drew a power road map and went for cash drive from the residents of the community, they residents in turn gave them their maximum cooperation and support which enabled them to purchase the new generator.  They drew a road map on how to manage the power generation to make sure everything was in order and by their efforts the community enjoyed 24 hours non-stop light. This group of men and women, who were later named the Power committee, monitored and maintained they generator to serve them as long as they desired.  But this took a toll on their families and their personal work yet they did not relent. They selflessly delivered their services to the community without a complaint or any form of remuneration, not minding   the time and effort it took from their lives. But as you know a machine must malfunction at one time or the other as a result of human, operational or mechanical fault. Whenever there is an issue with the generator, be it with maintenance or otherwise, even though it is in the middle of the night the committee members will leave the comfort of their beds to make sure the rest of the community sleeps with light.

Now the crux of the matter is that when these issues emanate several
 residents in the community will complain, whine, blame and accuse the committee members of doing a poor job, without minding or caring how they or their families will feel about their attitude towards power committee members in their community. Many at times the residents say very demeaning and terrible things about the members of power committee which of course became very disheartening but whenever the light is up and running they will praise and applaud them. This is exactly what I call the Israelites approach. As humans we tend to be disgruntled when things are not moving as we desire we blame, curse and criticize and forget to appreciate.  There is nothing wrong with constructive criticism, what I frown at is negative criticism which does not help in any way rather it complicates and discourages people who are working and serving.

Therefore, we discover that most times we approach issues in our lives just like the above case study, who have also behaved like the Biblical Israelites in this present day and time. This suggests that the same ungrateful and unappreciative trend is still very much at work in us. Critical analysis will show that we are very hard to please, when things do not go the way we desire.  We get angry and play the blame cards. What if some of these challenges are wired to make us strong and direct our path to success? If we just wait a tiny little bit, maybe solutions will come.  Have we ever considered speaking positively rather than blaming, cursing and a desire to head back to Egypt like the Biblical Israelites? A loyal person should be loyal to any course he or she believes in. No matter what the situation is we must always speak positive and encouraging words at all times. Do not only speak encouraging words when the going is good. Stand by what you believe in, even if the going is not smooth, whether it has to do with a course, a partner, a friend, a belief and so forth.

This is not me saying do not criticize but rather am saying you should learn to criticize in love, so your criticisms will bring about positive results. But most importantly learn to lend your support, encouragement, appreciation and be grateful at all times it achieves more result when applied to issues than you can ever imagine.

Thanks for reading.

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