The Grumble Box

I have to tell you about something amazing that happened at the beginning of this year and has continued through the school year. This is one of those moments as a teacher that you simply cherish because you can see God working through these amazing young kids and they ended up teaching me.

It all started when I read a devotion one morning about a family that struggled with grumbling. In the story, the family decided to make a grumble box and every time someone grumbled, they had to put money into the box.

After I had read the story, we discussed grumbling, the fact that it is a sin, and no one wants to be around a person who is comstantly grumbling and complaining. That is when it happened. One of the students suggested that we put our own grumble box on the board and put checks in whenever someone grumbled. All of the students got very excited and wholeheartedly agreed to work on this and keep each other accountable!

I was completely flabbergasted. Here were my students asking to be held accountable for their grumbling. In what universe does that happend??

Well, we put the box up on the board and started to keep track. It took a bit to get used to being aware, but eventually my students went on to make it an entire week without grumbling or complaining! How amazing is that?! I can only say that God has been doing amazing things with these students. We still have the box up and continue to keep each other accountable to this day.

I feel that it is only fair to admit that yes, I have gotten a check or two up on the board. A stack of papers I had in a binder fell completely out and I let out a small "Ohh man!" From behind me I hear, "Uh oh. Miss Ongna, that was a grumble!" Busted. As embarrasing as it is to be made aware of my complaining by one of my students, I could not have been more proud in that moment! These kids have held each other, and me, accountable for their sinful actions. The best part is, when one alerts another about their grumbling, there is no yelling or getting angry at that person about it. They simply realize and admit that they have done wrong. Seriously! I just can't make this stuff up.

How fantastic would it be if we could do the same in our daily lives? Simply hold each other accountable for our sins with no hard feelings, judgment, or better than thou attitudes. Their awareness of their grumbling and attitude towardes changing it has, in turn, made me extrememly aware of my tendency to complain and convicted me to work on it. My students are teaching me. It doesn't get much better than this folks!