Listening to Whining

I am pretty sure that the top two things we like the least from kids is tattling and whining. Ugh! Gavin and I went to the Cardinal game in July, just the two of us. We ate at one of the buffets and got an array of desserts. Gavin loves dessert. He also wanted a program. Now, I have been to a lot of baseball games, and I can tell you the number of times I’ve bought a program because I can count them on one hand. There is nothing in the program that I can’t read on the Internet. (I may have just made the baseball purist upset with me.) I ended up buying him one anyway and we headed inside the stadium. The minute we got inside, he started asking for cotton candy. I like a lot of things about Busch Stadium, but I have a few complaints, and this is one of them. I am disappointed with the recent change in cotton candy. It now comes in bags. There is no way you can make a sealed bag of cotton candy taste like the real thing. I know I probably could make better hot dogs or nachos at home, but there is something special about hot dogs, nachos, or even ice cream at the ball park. But cotton candy in a sealed bag is ridiculous. I understand that they probably weren’t selling enough and were throwing away so much every night. Yet, honestly, I can’t pay for overpriced, junky cotton candy. Ok, back to Gavin and the whining. I knelt down and tried to explain to him we just had this or that, and talked to him about complaining and how to behave instead. Let me tell you, it was a long night.  Granted, this was his first night game, which meant he was tired and we went home early. When my father-in-law asked me how the game went, I jokingly said we might have lost because of all the whining. This was the only game I have been to this season that wasn’t a win, so I jumped to blaming Gavin’s whining for the result of the game.

I don’t deal with whining as well as God did in our Old Testament reading this week. The children of Israel were complaining, again. God could have easily reminded them about how blessed they were for what He had given them. He could have talked about their release from slavery and how their life was better now, even though the food may not be as good. Instead, he listens. Scripture says He heard their grumbling. I find it interesting that God listened to their grumbling.

On the day that Gavin and I went to the game, I lost my keys. I have a few usual places where I put them, and expect that they’ll be in one of those places when I need to leave. This particular day, they weren’t in my go-to spots, and I couldn’t find them anywhere. Before the game I looked for my keys a little more, but with no luck. When Gavin and I left for the game, he was so excited that he was telling me a million things. I wanted to focus on him and this event that he was so looking forward to, but instead my mind was thinking of all the repercussions of losing my keys. Throughout the night I was trying to stay positive by making mental lists of the good things that were happening during my time with Gavin. As I slept that night I dreamt of finding my keys in the trash. When I woke up the next day, I once again went through all the different places where I might have left the keys, praying throughout my search that I would find them. (I probably sounded a little whiney to God.) Finally, as I was about to give up and deal with the repercussions, I thought of the Bible story of the lost coin, where once it was found they rejoiced. Guess what, I found my keys!  They had fallen out of my pocket and ended up in the corner of the couch, a corner I didn’t check before.  I rejoiced!

God listened to my whining and grumbling.  He gives me so much more than I need on a daily basis.  All God ever needed to give me was restoration in our relationship (forgiveness). I mess up every day in every way, and God knows that if I am going to have a chance with a relationship with Him, I need restoration – every day.

Now, I can’t give my son everything he wants, or the repercussions would be devastating. Yet God, who could just look us in the eye and say you got yourselves into this mess, or could even send us back to slavery where we belong, doesn’t say that. His love moves beyond that. Instead, He lovingly walks with us and listens to us, and even gives us a few of the things we grumble about.