My cross country team and I were probably driving the front lobby of the hotel crazy with our loud laughter and shouts as we played card games and participated in mandatory team bonding activities the night before our championships race. I, however, was hunched over my laptop brainstorming ideas for my paper that was due at midnight. To my horror, another competing cross country team entered the front lobby with their own deck of cards. The noise only intensified.

Frustrated and slightly tired of being around people, I packed up my laptop and papers with the intent of nonchalantly sneak back up to my room.

"You leaving?" my assistant coach asked me.

"Yeah, I have a paper due tonight." I replied

I waited for him to shrug with a "sucks to be you" look and say something along the lines of, "Well that's what you get when you wait until the last minute." To my surprise, he kindly smiled at me and said,

"Well, you still got a few hours left in the day."

His positive spirit uplifted my own spirit greatly and I found myself smiling to myself as I skipped the elevator and took the stairs up to my room. I ended up finishing my paper in record time with colorful ideas and a positive message throughout.

It's amazing how impactful our words truly are. They have the power to affect people's moods, to tear people down, or to build people up. Just the smallest gesture or the positive arrangement of our words could make somebody's day. So why then, if words are so powerful, do we throw them around as if they were nothing? It is said that people speak about 16,000 words a day. How many of those words are of actual value? In addition, how many opportunities do we have in a day where we could uplift someone's spirits and simple choose not to?

Today it's easier to complain and find the negative in our lives. Our society has become one of a complaining spirit. Complaining is part of our culture these days as has brought with it a crushed spirit, bad attitudes, chronic stress, and a sour face in many folks we see today. Proverbs 17:22 says, "A crushed spirit dries up the bones, but a joyful heart is good medicine." Perhaps being intentional about practicing joyfulness in every circumstance until it becomes a way of life is the key to living a happy, healthy life. Instead of complaining about the daily injustice done to us, we could count ten blessings on our fingers. The wonderful thing about this is when we are joyful, not only will our own spirit be uplifted, but the good medicine of joyfulness will rub off and effect all those we come in contact with. Joy is contagious, but so is the complaining spirit epidemic that has swept our country. Which will you choose to spread?