Things I Have Learned

"Your boys are sure good with their children," a friend of mine comments as we watch two of the 'boys' shepherding their little people at the wienie roast. "That's a rare thing in this day and age."

"Yes, they sure are, and yes, it sure is. We must have done something right... in spite of our selves," my friend and I smile and shake our heads knowingly.

We have been friends for quite some time now--close to twenty-five years, and we've been through the 'hard years'. The years when some of our kids said--very unkind and very hurtful things--and stomped off...and I'm never coming back--which hurt just about as much as the other things they said.

We learned to do the 'hard things' because they were the right things--not because they were easy, or convenient--but because they were the right thing.

"If you're so short of money," an acquaintance says accusingly, "why don't YOU go to work?"

"I do...every morning. I get up and I'm at work," that's what I should have said. I'm not sure now what I did say, but I can still feel the frustration with her kind of mind set. If you run short of money--just get a job outside the home. Who cares about the kids? They'll grow up whether you're home or not. They don't need...hmm...what do children need?

"All you and dad ever taught us was how to work!" my son says.

"And, your point is?" I guess the point was they felt abused because they didn't have time to wander through the mall with safety pins stuck in their ears--or something stuck in their nose--or wherever they wanted to stick something. If we had stuck pins in our children it WOULD have been considered child abuse but they can do that...to themselves?

And it is strange the difference of-- say--about fifteen years makes, and yes, they did come back. And we love them... and they us...in spite of our imperfections. Or maybe it's because of our imperfections, that and we're family.

It appears to me that many children are wandering through life looking for the love and attention they should have, but parents are too busy to give.

"I had to make a decision," my sister said a number of years ago, "I had to decide whether to have children, or to have a career. I chose a career."

Most women think they can have it all, have both children and a career. So why didn't she go for the children AND the career route? Simply put--our mother was a career woman--and we knew what it was to be wanted...from a distance. Wanted...somewhere else.

I have pondered the question, "why do people want/have children"? In the past it was just what happened. Every one had children. Now, more people are hesitant. Maybe they will, but again maybe they won't. Children are fine when they are cute and cuddly, and they are fine when they are grown productive adults--it's just the twenty years in between that can be painful.

Our society is a sad tribute to humanity thinking it has a 'better idea' than God. We can raise these children 'en masse' and every one can 'go' to work. Get them lazy women out of the house and get them busy! No longer does the "hand that rocks the cradle rule the world" --well, I guess it does. The government has become our children's mother--from day-care to public school and beyond, into old age and the nursing home.

What ever happened to the family unit being a family unit. Each family unit being unique?

"Oh, look!" my young son exclaims as he holds up his fork. "I've got a piece of meat!"

It's summer and the nine of us are living mostly off of our very large garden. I have a ten to twenty quart pan which I stir fry a whole host of vegetables (zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, whatever happens to be growing at the time) in--as well as the two pork steaks that I've cubed and added. We don't have a lot of meat, but we have lots of vegetables, and home made bread, milk from our cow, home churned butter, and...cake.

Psalms 78:20 Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?

1Corinthians 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. 11) Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.

Psalms 22:26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied; They shall praise Jehovah that seek after him: Let your heart live for ever.

Psalms 104:33 I will sing unto Jehovah as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. 34) Let thy meditation be sweet unto him: I will rejoice in Jehovah.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!