The countdown for T-day has begun, and I’m wearing a purple bracelet to remind me of the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Actually, it is a visual to recalculate whining tendencies. The bracelet declares, “Gripes Be Gone!”
Speaker and writer Linda Dillow gave two dozen women and me the bracelets at a recent teatime event. Linda is a Bible teacher, who mines scripture for spiritual nuggets. During this talk she asked if we knew what four horrible offenses God held against the Israelites when his miracles freed them from Egyptian slavery. The Apostle Paul lists the wrongs in First Corinthians 10: sexual immorality, idolatry, testing (rather than trusting), and grumbling. Linda asked, Isn’t it interesting that grumbling makes this list? Who knew the offense was and is THAT bad?
Dillow Insight on Griping
Here’s another observation Linda drew our attention to in First Corinthians 10:6 (ESV): “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” In other words, we have this example to teach us not to do likewise. Then, Linda challenged us to reexamine our attitudes in those moments that are uncomfortable or difficult. Attitudes of thankfulness fortify the command, “Gripes Be Gone!” She recommended daily journaling to record all the ways we receive God’s care. Give thanks!
So I’m wearing my little purple bracelet and watching out for gripes. When I catch myself, the band is moved from one wrist to the other. (One audience member declared she was not removing her bracelet but simply stretching the band and giving herself a whack.)
Please, No Bleating!
I looked up one definition of gripe:
1. “to express a complaint or grumble about something, especially something trivial.
“they gripe about the busywork”
synonyms: complain, grumble, grouse, protest, whine, bleat….”
How about you? Would you like to take the bracelet challenge and discover how well you can keep the gripes and bleats away this Thanksgiving?
Here’s one more “gripe” observation for Thanksgiving that might be appropriate. The second definition of gripe is:
2. “to affect with gastric or intestinal pain. ‘It gripes my belly like a green apple.'”
Therefore, watch out for getting too stuffed like a turkey! Happy Thanksgiving!
A Humorous Aside:
For those interested, here is what the Israelites complain about in the wilderness, shortly after their freedom from Egyptian bondage:
Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it (Numbers 11:4-9).
