The Complainer Will Be A Wanderer
Aaron on an expedition
“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name” (Psalm 100:4).
Dearest Daughters,
Don’t ever let your spirit degenerate into grumbling and complaining. Grumblers are destined to wander, going in circles, repeating the same failures again and again. They may try again, appear to succeed for a while, but soon enough find themselves back where they started. This was the story of the children of Israel.
God had delivered them with mighty works: the Red Sea parted before them, their enemies drowned behind them. He fed them manna from heaven, water from a rock, quail when they hungered for meat. He sheltered them by a cloud in the day and lit their way with fire by night. Yet they chose to murmur. The manna was boring. The water was bitter. The journey was too long. Their leader took too much time.
These are not unfamiliar complaints. Have you heard them in your own heart? My husband can’t make up his mind. Our finances are low. The house renovation drags on year after year. These things are common. But one truth remains: grumbling cannot coexist with gratitude.
The psalmist reminds us: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless Him name” (Psalm 100:4). Every time we yield to a complaining spirit, we step outside His presence and away from His blessings.
Complaining also blinds us. Our eyes fix on what we dislike, what has gone wrong, what feels hard. Meanwhile, the miracles pass us by unseen. We miss the water gushing from the rock, the fire separating us from our enemies, the cloud of glory leading us forward, because our gaze is fixed on moldy manna, clutched one day too soon.
Your father sometimes tells a story about a study conducted: people were asked to count the number of times a ball was passed back and forth in a video. In the middle of the scene, a man dressed as a gorilla wandered in, waved, made faces, and walked out again. Almost no one ever noticed him, because they were so intent on the ball. This is what happens when our eyes are glued to our complaints—we miss the very presence of God moving right in front of us.
Worse still, complaining drains the joy, peace, and laughter from a home. If you complain to your husband, your children will complain to you. They will mirror your attitude, until the whole household is weighed down under the same gray cloud. Even the husband you long to draw near may not feel urgency to return to a house of complaint. God Himself withdrew from Israel when their spirit was one of murmuring.
A friend of mine, whom I greatly respect, once told me a story. She and her husband had a little habit of making the bed together every morning. Standing on either side, snapping the sheets and smoothing the wrinkles, they would talk about the day. She confessed that she realized one morning how she always began by complaining: how little sleep she had gotten, how many times the baby had woken, who wet the bed. But in one of these moments, she felt the Lord convict her: Why don’t you start your day with gratitude instead of complaint?
The next morning she tried. As they tucked the corners and fluffed the pillows, she shared funny things the children had said the day before, progress in the garden, small joys. She told me it utterly changed the atmosphere—not only their relationship, but the whole day that followed. Her gratitude sparked inspiration in her husband, gave him ideas for their children, direction for their family plans. Just that simple choice—to begin the day without complaint, but with thanksgiving—opened the door for guidance, for creativity, for blessing.
Gratitude changes everything. Scripture exhorts us: “Do all things without grumbling or complaining, that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Phil. 2:14-15).
So, my dearest daughters, banish grumbling from your lips and hearts. Do not exile yourselves to a lifetime of wandering in circles. Instead, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Step up onto the Rock, and with gratitude and praise, climb the mountain into His presence.
With all my love,
Mom
