Jeremy has been struggling lately with work, family time, church time and relaxing time. For the last few weeks, he's been trying to figure out how we can make things slow down. The hard part is, this is life. Next year Josiah will be in Kindergarten and it will become more and more difficult trying to schedule things. Then before we know it, we will have three teenagers all at the same time and wondering how we will be able to make it to a Football game, Cheer leading practice, Band Concert or some other activity all at the same time. As Ezekiel gets bigger, I get a little sad and wonder what it would be like to have another baby. But then I think about how hard it is to have three at home at the same time and Jeremy also reminds me there is no way on earth we will have a fourth. Some days I am okay with that, some days I am not.
Today I am thinking about how blessed we really are. There are women all over this world that are struggling to get pregnant. For some reason, getting pregnant and having babies was easy for us. I truly believe with all of my heart that it was God's gift to both of us. I believe it was a very specific gift in my life. When I was a child, everything was difficult and a lot of bad things happened to me and the same for Jeremy. Everything was hard, so hard. So I have always felt like this was something God gave me to restore those years in so many ways. My struggle in life has not been pregnancy. I've had some other big things but having babies was not one of them and I realize what a blessing it is.
Sometimes I find myself looking at a nice minivan (something I want really bad) or big homes or people that I think have it all together (does that person exist?) and I find myself wishing. If I stay there long, I will soon become discontent. I've heard people say about others, "Wow. God's really blessed them. They have a great job, a nice home and get to take vacations." But, I rarely hear "Wow. God has really blessed them with a house full of kids." We seem to look at material things and other accomplishments or achievements as blessings but what about those kids God has blessed us with? What about our wombs that carried those babies? What about jumping for joy because God allowed us to have babies?? That's a blessing! Everything else means NOTHING.
Last week I was going through paper work with our Life Insurance agent. We switched all of our insurance stuff to someone local. He said something to me that really made me think. "Amanda, my wife and I are thinking about starting a family. What a blessing it is to have all these kids around you." This is while he is sitting at my kitchen table explaining insurance stuff and I am feeding all three kids lunch. I'm sure I looked a little frazzled but Stan decided to take it all in and soak up the joy of the kids. He then quoted one of my favorite scriptures. "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!" Psalm 127:3-5
So we may struggle in between paychecks and we may call on grandparents to help buy new shoes and fill up our tanks when we travel to Dallas and we may be piling our kids in a truck that is not made for a family of five but it has just enough seat belts for us to fit, but we are full. Our quiver is full. We've decorated the home like it's ours when we're really just renting. We've gone through the most difficult changes this past year and lost pretty much everything but, our quiver is full. We have more than enough. We have more than we could possibly imagine! We have each other and that is all we need.
As Jeremy was talking about how fast life is going, he told me about this song Kenny Chesney sings and then he made me watch the video. It's a must see. It's a song called Don't Blink and it will really show you what to be thankful for. Life is hard sometimes and the kids needing me 24/7 can be hard on me and hard on marriage. But, what we have is an incredible gift and I treasure every moment of it.
Okay, so watch this video! The code is blocked so I can't post it. Even if you don't like country music, watch this video. It has a powerful message! What the old man says in the video is so true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ySSg4QG8g
