Venting

We can be so critical. Sometimes I wonder why I waste energy criticizing certain things. For instance, the other night, I watched the show 16 Children and Moving In, a look at the life of the Duggar Family. I kept thinking, "oh come on, she can't be that sweet all the time. I bet she blows up at her kids sometimes." Then it hit me. I was being critical of this woman, rather than seeing the blatant lesson I could be learning. We're led to believe that "normal" women talk to their close friends about their frustrations with their kids and husband. Well this may be "normal" in our culture, but "normal" isn't always right (actually, I'm learning more and more that for a Christian "normal" is rarely right).

Proverbs 29:11 says that "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." I am now fully convicted that it is very foolish for one to vent their frustrations. Now come on, the reality of life is that we do have frustrating moments at home, but what help does it do to talk about it with others? Instead of being critical of Michelle Duggar, I decided to take a lesson from her, and that is she appears to be a very godly woman who is quiet and gentle, and who obviously loves her family very much. There was no need for her to air her dirty laundry on TV, nor is there a need for you or I to air our dirty laundry to each other. You do not need to know about my latest struggles with my children, or the things I disagree on with my husband. A wise woman just knows that life has its struggles, for every family, but that it is completely unnecessary to talk about such things even with the closest of friends.

Of course there's no such thing as a perfect family, and when you see a family that seems to never have problems (as I was assuming of the Duggars), it could be that they are choosing to keep their matters private, as they should be. I think if we all started going to our heavenly Father about such things rather than everyone else, we would all be getting farther along in life.