Family

(from Jay)

Having a big family is sometimes like carrying a 200 pound backpack full of food for 50 miles to starving orphans.  You know its the right thing to do, but its tough!

Somedays, though, you just step back and take it in and smile!  For the last three Easter weekends, we have in some way celebrated with a family dinner to observe what I call a New Testament Passover.  We fix some traditional foods.  We discuss the Old Testament Passover, and then bring it forward by discussing how Jesus ties into it.  Twice we've done it at home, and last year we did it with other families at our church.  Its such a blessing to stand back and look at our crowded table.  I know some day I'll miss it!

For now, I pray that God shows us how blessed we are!  To remind myself that my big family is a blessing and not a burden, I recently ordered some new stickers for the back of my suburban.  Six arrows with my kid's names on them.  I plan to put them on my rear left windshield.  It represents my quiver.  So, when the bills are expensive, and the stress is high, and the house is trashed...I am reminded by Psalm 127:3-5 that says, "Children are a heritage from the Lord....like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

In today's day and time, two kids is the norm.  But despite this cultural norm, despite how tough it is, how expensive it is, and how you can be required to watch four kids play ball at the local ballfield complex on the same night from 5pm to 10pm...children are a blessing...fill your home with them!  I pray that we are intentional and raise up homes full of children that become Godly adults prepared to do battle for God's kingdom in the next generation.