On Saturday morning, I was blessed to see Joyce Meyer in Indy. Do you know (of) her? She is an amazing Bible teacher and has many ministries to her name. She relates the Word to everyday life and is SO practical. I love to soak in what God does through her. I record her tv show Enjoying Everyday Life daily and I have learned so much. Needless to say, I was VERY excited to hear she was coming to Indy and then was actually able to see her (we got excellent seats, by the way!). Thousands of women came out for the event and many men, too!

This was the 3rd day of a conference in which she was speaking about contentment, specifically about COMPLAINING on Saturday. Oh, yeah. She is the Dr. Phil of preaching, I tell ya. I want to share a few things she said regarding complaining that spoke to me.

• Never complain about anything you don't have a vision to do anything about!!! (This was a biggie!)
• If you call the "complaint department" in heaven, you will get the Enemy.
• People AND God are not motivated by complaining.
• When we're waiting on something--a breakthrough or prayer isn't answered right away--always, always, always thank God for the many things you have, for how He's working in your life and others, for everything!! No matter what fortunate or "unfortunate" circumstance you're in, thank Him and He will keep working! (This drives the Enemy crazy!)
  
• If you complain, you remain. If you praise, you progress.
• Philippians 2:14 says, Do ALL THINGS without complaining or arguing. Be thankful in ALL THINGS.
• 2 Chronicles 20:17 says, You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverances the Lord will give you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take your position as a worshiper and He will fight the battle for you.

I know a lot of this can be hard to swallow and a reality-check (at least in my life). Some personality types have to work a lot harder at positivity than others. I will admit that I can often be the pessimistic-type. This topic hit home for me and is something I am going to try to be a lot more conscious of in my daily life/ interactions with others AND conversations with God. We all know someone in our lives who does this on a pretty regular basis though, don't we? Finds the silver lining in everything. After you whine about cutting your finger, she says, well, at least you have access to band-aids, or at least you still have nine others...something like that. A silly example (it's like 2 am, it's the best I can come up with at this hour), but they retort with something positive for which we should be grateful. Those people can get a little annoying sometimes, can't they? But, I think I can and should try to steer in that direction at least for and within myself. In the cut finger scenario, I can say thank you, Lord, that I have good health care and doctors available to me. Thank you FOR fingers, seriously!! That I can simply use them to rub my son's back at night to calm and relax him and I can manipulate them to sign "I love you" to him across the room. Okay, but don't worry, I will not be correcting you, my friends, constantly when I hear a complaint. This is important for me to work on applying in my own life. Remember, I am SO a work in progress :-)

As if Joyce Meyer was not enough, we got to worship with Matt Redman. He is an awesome Christian artist and worship leader. I was so pumped for God and moved through the music. And to be surrounded by thousands of people singing His praises in "Your Grace is Enough" and "Blessed Be Your Name"...well, there is nothing like it and gives me goosebumps recalling it. I'd never experienced worship in that capacity before. Oh, and this was a fun song to end with...a lot of dancing for Him at Conceco Fieldhouse! How cool, that was the actual video from Indy over the weekend!

I hope you all had a great weekend!