Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

Murmuring. Something I've been told not to do all my life. You know, the idea that comes from John 6:43: "Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves."  But it's so hard not to murmur!! Griping, complaining, moaning, whining, it's what I do. I'd read about people in the scriptures who didn't murmur and I'd always just figured, "Welp, they're better than I'll ever be. I don't know how not to murmur. Can't figure this one out."

            The most famous murmurers are the children of Israel right? Constantly murmuring! Sometimes I get so annoyed at them, it’s always one thing after another and then another and then another. I want to yell at them in their graves, "Seriously guys?!" But then I realized, if there was a book written from the objective prospective about my life, it too would be FILLED with my constant murmurings (aka whinings, complainings, gripings, etc.)  I do it a lot, it's hard not to.

            So I thought to myself, "There's got to be a way. If the Scripture People can do it, so can I. But how?" Here are my thoughts:

            We have the poster child(ren) of Israel that have just witnessed seven miraculous events in Egypt (Exodus 7-10), run across the dry bottom of an entire sea between two walls of water! (Exodus 14:22), are given manna from heaven which will spoil if too much is gathered unless it's on the 6th day of the week (Exodus 17:2-3), aaaaaaaaand they start murmuring.

"And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Where fore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?"(Exodus 17:3). If I were Moses I think my response would have been something like, "Geeeeeese, everything that's been done for you and you're still going to complain about survival? I can't believe I have to put up with this kind of immaturity." But of course that would be murmuring and that is NOT what Moses did.

            "And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people?" (Exodus 17:4). Instead of griping, Moses went-to-the-Lord with constructive communication. THAT is the difference. When I'm put out about something and I have a thing or two to say about it, instead of huffing and puffing to myself, I can close my eyes and in the form of prayer, communicate my concerns to God. By opening up the communication we give our Father in Heaven a chance to point something out, or encourage, comfort, or teach. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it,that the people may drink. And Moses did so.” Moses was productive because instead of murmuring he went to the Lord with constructive communication about a problem he had. I may never retrieve water from a rock, but I might be able to keep the murmurin’ on the DL.

Thank you Moses for, once again, showing the way.