How I refuse to be

The people soon began to complain to the Lord about their hardships; and when the Lord heard them, his anger blazed against them. Fire from the Lord raged among them and destroyed the outskirts of the camp.

--Numbers 11:1 NLT

This was the first verse in our Bible reading tonight. And it struck me, as we are facing many trials right now, just how easy it would be to become like the Israelites, especially in light of the many parallels of the Christian's walk with the wandering of the Israelites in the desert. And yet, right here, right now, I am making a statement:

I REFUSE TO BECOME LIKE THAT.

Instead...I am going to praise God for His awesome kindness, love, provision, and many blessings--not one of which I am deserving of. I am going to look at today for the blessings and gifts that I was given.

I am going to count each moment of my work day that went without a major hitch as a blessing. The Lord only knows how many opportunities there were for things to go wrong, yet it was remarkably smooth. I am going to count each hug my youngest gave me today to tell me he loved me, instead of each time that I had to correct him for not listening or for being disrespectful. I am blessed to have a job--there are many who are unemployed and don't know how they are going to provide for their families; I am blessed to have children--there are women who cry themselves to sleep nightly from barrenness.

I am going to remember that although we have seen money come and go from our hands this month in ways that we had not predicted or planned for, I am going to praise God for making the money go far enough to provide for our needs as we continued to be faithful in our giving to Him first. I am going to remember that for each thing that I feel entitled to in this life, that really...deep down, death is the only thing due me.

I am going to remember that for each person who is ripped from my life--by distance, by death, or by other circumstances--new people are put into my life to bless me in their place. And although people may leave, they have touched me and blessed me in many different ways, and I will forever be better for their roles in my life.

I refuse to become a complainer. God has delivered me from far more than what I could begin to list as being problems in my life. I must stay focused on the blessing. And if you see my struggle, please remind me to stop and count my blessings.