Under her arm she'd wedged three boogie boards strapped together in a clumsy bundle, an enormous rolling suitcase nipping at her heels. She looked tired-but-happy as a trio of giggling children, each pulling a miniature rolling bag, asked endless questions: "How long till the plane comes? Where's the bathroom? Will Daddy get here in time?"
When Daddy finally came into view, the children jumped for joy and Mommy's smile widened ever so slightly. Made me think of Scripture again:
"Children are an heritage from the LORD;
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man,
so are children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them . . . . "
~Psalm 127:3-5
Some believe there's a limit to how many children a family can responsibly bear. I don't find that line of thinking in the Bible. God says to be fruitful and multiply . . . to trust Him and leave the matter of providing for needs to Him.
My husband and I only had the privilege of raising two children. But when I look around at larger families, I can't help but smile at the prospects of large family gatherings around their holiday tables for generations to come.
"Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house;
thy children like olive plants round about thy table."
~Psalm 128:3
If you grew up in a large family, what were some of the advantages and disadvantages you experienced?
While I didn't grow up in a large family, my husband Joe and I are nearly done raising our 7 children. We aren't Catholic, nor did we set out to have 7, rather as Joe tells it, the last time we discussed it was about having #3! Five are now married with 8 babies between them, one is a college Sr. and one a high school Senior. Three of the married familys came by last night to celebrate the baby's 18th birthday. What a joy to listen to their conversations, teasing and laughter. They somehow got to talking about about how during the school year we had teams at night, one was the dishwashing team, (no dishwasher for us, we had 7!) the other was the lunch making team. Particularly with the lunches, they knew they needed to make a decent one for a sibling as the next night theirs would be made by that person. Effort was taken to be careful as no one wanted the next day to be in school, open the brown bag and find in their lunch -paybacks in the form of a mushy bananna, stale bread and no snack. A Full Quiver Family.
ReplyDeletePam, you are so blessed!!!! Thanks for sharing!
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