Long Week - Phew!

Man, this was a long week - but I got a lot accomplished in spite of having a cold!

I finally got back to working - I put together over a dozen bins for our seamstresses (had to do a lot of cutting in order to do this as we didn't cut anything for a long time due to the impending CPSIA ruling that was delayed!).  I also got behind on emails while I caught up on production - so much so that I spent around 2 hours digging through nearly 400 emails -replying to at least 50 of them!  All that in about a week of trying to ignore most of the emails while still keeping urgent things replied to!

I wanted to relate a couple of unique things that happened this week.  Yesterday while waiting for Esther's physical therapy session, another lady waiting asked me if Esther was my first baby - to which I replied, "no, she's my 11th".  The lady was shocked of course, as most people are, but there was a man in the waiting room as well.  He didn't say anything at first, but looked a little surprised.  Then, when the lady left, he turned to me and said something like,"that's a really big number"  followed with a comment like "if everyone produced like that, our world would be in caos".  I said that not all people intend to have lots of children, and that it is quite out of the ordinary.  He then said that with population growing as it is, it would take 3 earths to support the current population and that our current trends will end up with total chaos.  I pointed out to him that the entire population of the USA could own a home on a nice sized lot and everyone could live in Texas and use the rest of the USA to product food for everyone in Texas.  He then countered with something about overpopulation in some small country in Africa and some island in the Caribbeans.  This man has obviously been reading some really liberal garbage and believing everything he reads.

I then said to him that I invest my life in raising my children to be productive, responsible adults that will make a difference in the world around them.  He then said that past 8 children, they would be substandard.  WHAT?  So, any child past 8 children in the home would automatically be stupid?  I couldn't believe he would even believe that, let alone say that to me!  I pointed out to him that if you studied people who have made great impact on our world for the better (like Mozart, Einstein, and those types of people), many of them are 6th or greater in their families!  I also pointed out to him that our 11th is just 3 yos and she counts, knows her colors, runs like the wind, can balance on anything and seems to be smarter and more athletic than any of our other children! So There!

He was quiet for a while, and then said something that I don't remember, and then I got my last comment in before his wife came out - I pointed out to him that having a few or many children is not the point, it's how you raise them that is the important matter.  I know many families who have only two children, yet the children are complete detriments to our society - drug addiction, violence, alcoholism, laziness, lack of morality etc...families where the parents are so self centered as to think that children are a burden and the sooner they are out of the house the better.

Godly parenting is the most important this we can do in this life - our children can do far more to impact our world than we can do alone.  If each godly married couple invested their lives in parenting 4 or more children in the course of their lifetime, in less than 30 years, I believe we'd have a majority of godly people in the USA and that would translate to a moral majority in politics as well!

Vision, people.... it's all about the future.  Looking beyond today to what our children can accomplish to impact their world.

I know that now all married couples are blessed with children, or 4 or more children.  But God is not limited to creating godly families biologically is he?  Personally we have not adopted any children as God has not called us to do this, but most of my dear friends have adopted children and brought those children into godly homes and are nurturing their bruised and broken spirits and seeing the fruits of their labors - what a mission is that!

So I challenge you today - are you doing all in your power to make our world better by parenting your children to glorify God and make a difference for him?  Are you letting God lead you in the area of children?  Is He calling you to have more children (biologically or adopted)?

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now.

Have a great weekend everyone - off to shepherd my flock!