Complaining is one of the most socially acceptable sins there is. We grumble about the weather, the traffic, the queue and the price of bread, and nobody thinks twice. Yet Paul writes, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure" (Philippians 2:14 to 15). He seems to think it matters more than we do.
This story about complaining, retold in our own words, comes from the American poet and memoirist Maya Angelou, who learned a lifelong lesson about it from her grandmother behind the counter of a small country store. It ends with a takeaway you can use in a sermon or in your own daily habits.
Story in this post:
"Don't Complain": A Lesson From Maya Angelou's Grandmother
Maya Angelou, the celebrated author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, had a deeply painful childhood. But one stretch of it brought stability and calm. From the age of three, she was sent with her brother to live with their grandmother, Annie Henderson, in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas.
Her grandmother ran the general store, the hub of the local community. All day people came in to buy flour, sugar, kerosene and gossip. And one thing irritated her grandmother more than almost anything else: customers who complained. They grumbled about the heat. They grumbled about the cold. They found a hundred small things to whine about, things her grandmother considered trivial.
So she developed a habit. Whenever a chronic complainer had left the store, she would call little Maya over. In Angelou's retelling, her grandmother asked if she had heard what the customer had been complaining about. Then she reminded the child that all over the world, people had gone to bed the night before, rich and poor, of every race, and had never woken up. Those people, she said, would give anything at all for just five minutes of the weather that customer had been grumbling about.
Then came the lesson Angelou carried for the rest of her life. When you don't like something, her grandmother told her, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
Takeaway: Angelou's grandmother had boiled down a whole theology of gratitude into a few words. If you can change a situation, act. If you can't, let your mind be renewed. Either way, do not waste your breath grumbling. Paul learned "to be content whatever the circumstances" (Philippians 4:11). Try this for one day: every time you start to complain, either do something about it or thank God for something instead.
Source: Maya Angelou, "Complaining," in Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (Random House, 1993); also reprinted in Chicken Soup for the Soul collections.
Final thoughts
A grandmother in a country store gave her granddaughter one of the most practical pieces of wisdom you will ever hear: change it, or change how you think about it, but don't complain. It is a short story about complaining with a long reach into every ordinary day.
What is one complaint you could turn into either an action or a thank you today?
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These stories are retold in our own words for teaching and reflection. Sources are credited under each story.