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Day 44, or February the 13th. My rose-tinted specks are still in good working order.

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Our thoughts today are from Numbers, chapter 11, verses 5 and 6. We remember the fish we

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ate in Egypt at no cost, also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now

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we have lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna.

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First the big picture surrounding these verses. The moaning and complaining continued, and

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the wilderness wandering had only just begun. It's been exactly one year since God freed

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the Israelites from Egypt, but memories fade quickly. In no time at all they were recalling

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the nice things they were missing. They make no mention of the taskmaster's brutality

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or the making of bricks without straw. They just remember the negatives. Before they set

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off they celebrated Passover, which must have been a spiritual high point for the whole

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nation. God never leaves their camp, as He guides them with a cloud, which would stop

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at a place where camp was to be made that night. When the time was right it would set

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off again, and they followed it, until it stopped again. There was also the sound of

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two silver trumpets that would be a signal for the tribes to leave in an orderly fashion,

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as agreed. They hadn't gone far before grumbling could be heard. It got louder and louder,

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and even Moses' sister Miriam and her brother Aaron were amongst the moaners.

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And now our action step for today. Just as we don't have to teach our children to misbehave,

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we need no instruction on how to moan. It seems to me that some people are particularly

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gifted at it. I don't like criticism, and I don't know anyone who does, do you? However,

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when the comments are made in order to improve my life or me, they are so much easier to

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bear. If only I could see the positive side first, instead of having to look for it. The

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negative jumps into my face very easily, and I have to dodge around it in order to see

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the other side, the positive side. Why not train yourself to be the sort of person who

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says, on the other hand?