When Life Gives You Lemons

I've been thinking a lot about a verse lately.  As a kid, it was one of the ones that always made it onto the memory verse song tapes (Steve Greene's are the ones I'm thinking of).

"Do everything without complaining..."

It was a great tune.  I still love it, and it still goes through my head pretty often.

"...without arguing..."

Then, with the song surprisingly close by in my ears, I often complain anyway.  Out loud.  Inside.  The Bible doesn't say complaining is fine as long as it's internal.  It simply says not to do it.

And it says there's something we can become if we follow its directions.  Something I really want to be.

The KJV puts it like this:  "Do all things without murmurings and disputings:  that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."  Philippians 4:14, 15

Remember that word murmuring?  It's used a lot when the Bible talks about how unthankful the Israelites were in the wilderness, even in the face of God's amazing miracles.  The Bible says we can't be the light of the world that Jesus wants us to be if we're always murmuring.  And how could we?  When we talk and think about the negative things, how can we be spreading good news about our good God?

The version they used in the song went like this:  "Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God."

So when we are complaining, we're not only missing out on being the light, but we're also missing out on being God's children at all.

Pretty serious stuff.  And just in case you're wondering?  I wrote this post for me.  I'm sure none of you ever get tempted to complain or gripe about anything like I often do.  :)

So just a reminder for myself--when life gives you lemons and plenty of them, make lemon juice and use it to fight a cold.  Or do something else nice with them.  If we're even a little bit patient, it doesn't take long to see that God really is working everything out for good.