For the past 9 months I have been dealing with chronic bilateral lateral epicondylitis.   To put that in laymann's terms it means I have tennis elbow.  Named because so many tennis players deal with this condition from the repetitive motion of swinging a tennis racket.  Now mind you, I hadn't played tennis in years. We're not even sure why I started experiencing it in my right elbow.  Could be from the kickboxing I was doing, maybe from the weight training...who knows.  I got irritated with it this summer because it wasn't going away so I did decide to get out the tennis racket and my husband and I had fun every Sunday evening for about 6 six weeks and yup, you guessed it. Now my left elbow has it too - so it really is tennis elbow.
  To be honest, it's been really annoying.  It's kept me up at night; I have a hard time holding the blow dryer;  my yoga practice and any weight training has been affected; I get burning in my arms after I play the piano or even dust the furniture or vacuum.  Yup, it pretty much stinks.  And I've tried all kinds of modalities like physical therapy, no upper body activity, acupuncture, chiropractor and as of this writing I've just ordered myself a couple of magnetic elbow braces.   We'll see.
  As I'm doing my bible study this past week I realized what a whiner I am.  Trust me, I've whined a lot about this.  The Holy Spirit has led me to study through Luke for the next month or so and I was reflecting on Mary and her response to God when she learns she is pregnant.  The Bible doesn't tell us a lot about her reaction.  It does say in Luke 1:29 "Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be."   We get a sense of her acceptance in verse 38 when she says "I am the Lord's servant...may it be to me as you have said."   Then she leaves and goes to see her cousin Elizabeth and I can't help but think that the two of them (she spent about three months there) had their fair share of  whining together.  Did she share her fears, her anxiety, her confusion about all that was happening? Did she say "God, why me?"  If she did we don't know.  What we do know is that she responded by PRAISING GOD.  I love this!  We read her praises in verse 46-55.  "My soul glorifies the Lord."  "my spirit rejoices in God my Savior" "He has performed mighty deeds with his arm"
   Read it for yourself.  God quieted my grumbling spirit for a bit and His Word has really challenged me to praise myself out of this.  I may have to deal with this awhile longer. I don't know.  However, I do know that I can change my attitude and praise my faithful God who is wanting to grow me in the midst of this irritating condition. 
  What are you grumbling about today?   What's caused you fear?  What's made you annoyed and irritated? Maybe you, too, need to spend a little time praising God instead.  Be like Mary. Be like David. It'll do your heart good.  It did me.