For Family Home Evening tonight, I taught a lesson on "murmuring". (To be honest, I got part of the idea from the "Work and the Glory"). We have had a big problem in our home lately, with murmuring. It seems that everytime someone is asked to do something they complain. If someone else does something that they don't like, they complain. If anything comes up, that they weren't planning on, they complain. Even treats, and special occasions, were starting to be subject to complaining. Worse yet, as parents, we complained that they were complaining!!
I decided that it needed to be addressed, but in a more creative way than complaining! So, we started in the Old Testament, where the Lord is telling the Israelites that they were not going to be allowed into the Promised Land. He uses some very strong imagery in pointing out that though thier children will be allowed to inherit it, they will not see it themselves. We then talked about what they thought they Israelites could have possibly done to recieve this harsh rebuke. After discussing it, we went back and reread it, and I did not leave out what they had done this time. Then we talked about all the times they murmured and what the Lord had done for them.
We then talked about how the Lord needs servants and leaders that will have faith in Him, and trust Him, and not murmur about everything. That led to a discussion about Zion's camp, and we watched the video off of Youtube. We then ended with our testimony about having gratitude for our blessings, and trusting in Him. I also pointed out, that the Lord gives many commandments that we are asked to follow, and sometimes we think we know why a commandment was given. That reason can sometimes make it easier to follow the commandment, but we need to always remember, that the 'reason' is 'our' thought, not necessarily the Lord's. If what we thought turns out not to be right, we need to not get angry, or confused, or lose faith, but just trust that there is better reasoning behind it. Even the leaders may not know all the reasons, and sometimes the Lord himself only shares line upon line, about why we are to do/not do certain things.
Hopefully, this helps with our murmuring problem. We will be referring back to the lesson as the days go by, when we need to correct the children (and I am sure ourselves sometimes). I will post back later on how it goes.
