[God] has heard your grumbling.
—Exodus 16:8
It’s Thanksgiving week. Resolve to make it a week of thankfulness. Gratitude is a choice. So is grumbling.
Numbers 13–14 shows us what God thinks about grumbling. It was a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of Israelites. The hike from Egypt to Canaan, which could have been made in a month, stretched to forty years. God waited for the gripers to die in the wilderness before planting their children in the Promised Land.
English churchman and historian Thomas Fuller said, “We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.”
Gratitude is a learned attitude. You don’t have to learn how to gripe and grumble; you were born with those items in your diaper bag. But you do have to learn how to be grateful.
Be alert to blessings this week. Celebrate, don’t bellyache.
Gratitude is where happiness begins.