My mind drifts to the hymn when I hear those words, I am sure many of us have sung it but I wonder how many of us have sung it and actually stopped to realize the words that were actually being spoken from our lips and what exactly was taking place once those lyrics reached God’s heart, does He in return look back at us and say are you really surrendering all? …I am sure this goes for all of us. There is always some part of our lives that we just can’t give it all to God and trust Him to have control of it. But what I felt the need to talk about in this entry is..Children..The average family in America today has a family consisting of 4 to 5 members and that’s including the parents. Now most of you would say 3 kids that’s enough for 2 parents to handle who needs anymore..I have three kids and for awhile I couldn’t have agreed with you more..There was a time that I would hear others reply ahh we have enough children we are done..Or people using contraceptives to make sure they don’t become pregnant..
And honestly I never thought twice about the comments or decisions. That was until God began to give me His heart on this…and honestly now when I heart those comments I cringe, because its almost as if we have placed ourselves in a position to say ok God I trust you with everything but the kid part...that part I get to choose and call the shots ok? Do we seriously think that flies in heaven? Does God really look down and say with a smile oh ok I didn’t really need that part of your life anyway.. When God asks us to surrender all..I am going to take a leap here and say I think He means ALL.. ..I know I can already hear the reasons of why this part of our lives just has to be off limits to the surrendering part..Trust me I get it..As a woman we desire “me” time whether that be hanging out with a girlfriend for coffee, a new outfit or a hobby that we really enjoying doing..And of course we can’t forget our desire to keep up our womanly figures;)..We don’t want to sacrifice “our” time. I totally hear you ladies, and when God began calling my heart on this, trust me He heard a few whines or two..Or three ha;) But I knew without a doubt what He was speaking to my heart was the truth and I had to make a choice to listen and obey and to decide to follow Him or the voices of the world on this.
The voices of the world have made us believe that children are a curse and the more you have the worse things will be, you’ll never be able to take care of them (how many times have we said oh we just can’t “afford” another child) As Christians I believe we are doing God an injustice and totally disobeying Him when we buy into that lie. We are staring God in the face and saying I don’t want anymore children because you know I just don’t trust that you will provide for their needs…hmm that makes it sting when we hear it that way huh? So what exactly does God say about this? In Genesis 9:7 “As for you be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” Psalm 127:3-5 “ Behold children are a gift of the Lord , the fruit of the womb is a reward like arrows in the head of a warrior , so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man, whose quiver is full of them, they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate”…God chooses to reward us with children..Not curse us..So why don’t we accept it that way?
Take a breath this is gonna hurt….But maybe because we live in a selfish society were its all about us and “our” time and meeting “our” needs? We think our standards are God standards, that to answer this call our lives then we have to have tons of money...did we forget who Jesus parents were? That we have to provide them with a huge house.umm did we forget where Jesus was born and where He slept? That children just cost to much( clothes, toys, extracurricular activities etc)But is it really the children who cost too much or is it us the parents who have bought into this false image of what a family really looks like..Jesus didn’t come to give us the American dream..He came to give us Life..And to help us build a legacy and I believe that starts through our children..And if we all really took the time to simplify our lives and allow God to teach us how to raise our children we would began to realize that they really are a reward and a blessing. I think of the TLC family the Duggars when I see a family who has answered this call on their lives..Isn’t it amazing how so many of us will tune into their show watch it and then turn it off and never for a second think that God is calling us to make the same commitment to Him??..They are no different than the next family who steps up and takes a step of faith and says God I commit to you how many children we are to have, God didn’t just call the Duggars folks..He has called all of us who belong to Him to commit this part of our lives to Him..God desires to find faithful people of this day. And when He does there is no stopping His hand upon their lives!..But it requires us taking that first step of faith and trusting God with the rest….”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11:1
As for me and my family we will serve the Lord and we choose to commit and surrender this part of our lives to Him..anyone else ready to join us and choose to do the same?:)