what Miriam taught her Mama about whining

A few days ago, all of us were out and about running errands. As we were leaving a store, Miriam noticed a gumball machine and decided right then and there that she had to have one. And she let us know it.

"Mama, can I have a gumball?"

"No, honey, not this time."

"But I want one!"

"No, Miriam. I already said 'no.' "

"But Mama!" {cue whining}

Little did Miriam know that her Papa was planning on taking us all to get a little ice cream after we got in the car. Ice cream is something Miriam loves. And she loves it far more than gumballs. And ice cream is definitely a treat for her as we don't have it all that often. Meanwhile, Miriam proceeded to whine and whine and whine. So by the time we got her calmed down and into the car, we told her we had a surprise for her. Yes, perhaps we should have skipped the whole ice cream idea after all of her whining, but we decided we still wanted to go and enjoy family ice cream night.

This whole event sparked a thought in both Matt's and my head. Oddly, we said the same thing right after we were packing up in the car. We related the incident with Miriam to how we sometimes (or often in my case) whine to God. We always seem to have something in mind that we want and we want it right now. So, we beg and plead with God to give it to us. Meanwhile, He has something bigger and better in mind if we would just stop whining and let Him bless us with His better idea. I love that the Lord puts word pictures like that right in front of my face so that I don't miss what He's trying to say. I pray I can continue to remember that as I think about whining to him yet again.