If you have ever gone on a car trip with children you have heard that question many times over!  “Daddy, Mommy, are we there yet?”

There’s a funny little story about a family taking a several-hour car trip and within thirty minutes the little boy was asking, “Daddy, are we there yet?”  Daddy answered, “Not yet.  We will be riding for several hours.”  To a little fellow that didn’t mean anything and after several more inquiries about “are we there yet?” the daddy became exasperated. Finally, daddy said, “NO, we are NOT there yet and I do NOT want you asking again!  We will be there when it is dark!”  After several minutes of silence, the little boy quietly asked, “Daddy, is it dark yet?”

I have often thought of the Israelites taking 40 years to get through the desert when it should have taken them only a few weeks at the longest!  I wonder how many times the adults, as well as the children, asked, “Moses, are we there yet?”

Why did it take so long?  It wasn’t a simple detour . . . they camped out AND took the long detour!

The Israelites were not even out of Egypt before they started complaining.  They whined and carried on so that even Moses got tired of listening to them!  After the numerous miracles that God performed to show them His power, protected them from the plagues that confounded the enemy, provided a way out – with the goods of Egypt given to them – they still complained.  They complained when the Egyptians started out after them and they continued to complain and whine after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea.  “We want water”, “we want meat” . . . on and on it went.

It finally got to a point that God said that the current generation would die in the desert and would never enter into the Promised Land.

That story hits me where it hurts because I don’t like to think of myself as a complainer but I know that I do!  Many times I feel like Paul when he wrote in Romans, “I do what I don’t want to do and don’t do what I want to do!”  I want to NOT complain and before I know it – I have, again.

So then I wonder, because of my complaining does God get angry with me?  Does He not answer my prayers because I whine?  Am I wandering around and around and around in my own “wilderness” because of my attitude?

“Father, forgive me” is a constant prayer!