Don’t complain, mumble, murmur or whine.
Maxim #39
The question is whether she is a grumbler, or only a grumble. If there is a real woman, even the least trace of one, still there inside the grumbling, it can be brought to life again…..The whole difficulty of understanding Hell is that the thing to be understood is so nearly Nothing. But ye’ll have had experiences…it begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticizing it. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will that mood, embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. They there will be no you left to criticize the mood, nor even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.
-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Complaining, mumbling, murmuring, and whining are all not so subtle ways of placing the blame of a negative situation on someone other than oneself. One of the easiest temptations to fall prey to is to spend one’s time dwelling on the faults of others. I am sure that it gives the devil great joy when we turn our minds to complaining about others as it both distracts us from focusing on the correction of our own faults and does nothing to assist the person whose weakness we have turned our attention to.
Whining about a situation, in my experience, has never helped me solve a single problem. It has often helped me to move from a bad mood to an even worse one, however. We often make the mistake of thinking we can make a situation better by sharing our complaints with others, when more often than not complaining simply makes a burden heavier.
The goal of Christianity is not to produce whiners, but rather those who encourage and help others when life is difficult.
