Four Priorities

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world... -Philippians 2:15

Grumbling, disputing, complaining, arguing, questioning, murmuring, protesting, hesitating, reasoning, and muttering* can disprove everything we claim as Christians and reveals a mistaken understanding of priorities.

Every evening, there comes a time when I must deliver the bad news to my son: it's time to stop playing and brush your teeth for bed. You would think Al Qaeda just burst into his room with shackles and a tooth brush.

Why does he dispute every time? Does he not remember the last thousand nights in which we did this? Does he not learn that complaining does nothing but make the experience worse for everyone? No, none of this is relevant to him in that moment. What he sees is a choice between playing and dental maintenance, and playing is his higher priority.

What he doesn't see, is that the choice is actually between playing and trusting his father who loves him and knows what's best for him. And this is what I miss all the time too.

When lower priorities intrude upon higher priorities, I can't grumble, because God is sovereign over interruptions and trusting him is my number one priority. So no more muttering when church stuff interferes with kid stuff which interferes with wife stuff which interferes with God stuff because it's all God stuff. No complaining when my kid's strike up a symphony of electronic toys and chattering anytime my wife and I try to have a conversation. No heavy sighing when a church call interrupts book time with one of the kids.

A child of God grows out of argumentation, and thus stands out in a crowd of arguing humanity. Let's help each other out by not murmuring about a single thing today. Let's get our priorities straight by trusting God in his sovereign interruptions.**

*These are all the English words I found that have been used to translate this verse. I think the literal is closest to mutter and reason.
**This is not to say that we should just give up trying to talk with our spouse because the kids are loud. If the kids need you, tend to them. If not, talk louder or learn sign language - but don't grumble. And I won't always come to the phone until after I finish book time because of my priorities - but heavy sighing is not helpful either way.