Friday, July 19, 2013

Striking Arrows


I do have ten children, or rather, I should say, "we do" meaning my wife and I. If you had told me when I first got married that I would have ten, I would have said that you were out of your mind. Since we acquired these little creatures one at a time, it's never really seemed like that many. Until now. Sure, there were certain instances when I'd look around on Christmas morning or when we're all walking out to the pool on vacation or trying to keep track of everyone at the beach and I think "that's a lot of kids." But most of the time the thought rarely crosses my mind.
When we first got married, my wife and I decided that we would let God determine our family size. People would ask if we chose to take this course of action because we didn't believe in contraceptives. A few typical responses might flow along these lines: "Of course, I believe in them. We just don't use them" or even better-- "Yeah, I've seen them in the store, but why would I do that?" I mean, I'm not trying to prevent some kind of illness, am I?
Like I started to say, we believe children are a blessing from God and that every conception is from Him--  He knows about it and it occurs because He wants it to regardless of whether you think it was an accident or you've been planning it around your career and financial stability. He ultimately makes it happen. Yes, two people of the opposite sex need to be involved, but the miracle of conception is His doing. I also don't believe that I'm smart enough or possess the wisdom or foresight to determine the best time to bring a life into the world. In any life, there are an infinite number of variables, an infinite number of unknown possiblities and to think that I can possibly gauge the highest chance for success for a life using my own knowledge, then I am kidding myself. Let's face it: you really don't know nor can you control what's going to happen tomorrow. I'd much rather take my chances with God in the driver's seat than me any day. And the same for my children.
So the million dollar question is: Do you plan on having more? And first the first time, I've found myself hesitating and thinking to myself, "We'll see." It's not that I no longer like children or that I just can't take anymore, it's that I've begun to look at our physical limitations-- where? and how?
When we first set out, we said that we would trust God-- no matter what. It's easy to trust him when you think you can do it, but the real test comes in trusting Him, when you know you can't do it. That's where we are now.

 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
-- 2Kings 13:18-19   


Do we stop when we think we've had enough of God's blessing or do we just keep going and allow Him to give us the full extent of all that He wants to do in our lives?
That's a question each of us must answer for ourselves. Do I walk by faith or do I walk by sight?
After ten of the most wonderful blessings in my life, why would I stop now?

3 comments:

  1. Loved this. I applied to another area of my life as well- I already have seven children!- and my faith has been faltering in a different way. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...And trusting Him when He has not blessed us with children since our 5th... trusting for us has meant for as many or as few as He delights to give us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We have 9 kids and hope to have many more. Ages 12 to 6 1/2 months. When we first started having kids we never thought we'd have this many. We knew we wanted a few but at some point we just knew we were going to have whatever God gave us. We have gotten flack over the years because of it but we will not tell get to not bless us because it makes others uncomfortable. It's not always easy and we are in a situation that causes high stress having as many kids as we do, (think modern day Job) but we lean on God's word that He will take care of us no matter the storm. If He blesses us in this storm then we will praise him just the same.

    ReplyDelete