photo by Leo Reynolds

I might have mentioned this before, but I am currently reading through the Psalms. Hey, it’s a LONG book… It’s taking me a while!  Plus, sometimes as I read, something really strikes me and so I’ll read it again and again, to really soak it in.  Such was the case a few days ago with Psalm 127.  I have read it over and over, really trying to understand it down to my soul.  I am trying to figure out exactly what this looks like in my daily life.  How does this practically play out in every day activities.

Unless the Lord builds the house, it’s builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand in guard in vain.  In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat- for he grants sleep to those he loves.

We’ve probably all read this before… I think this passage should actually  be a mandatory read beside Proverbs 31.  It aims really, truly at the heart of the issues, rather than the behavior.  In other words, I can have all of the actions of the Proverbs 31 woman.  But if the LORD is not in my home or in my heart, if He is not doing the building work, MY work is worth nothing!

It’s the same I’ve realized, with my children.  I can teach the behavior I want, and punish the behavior that I do not want and get the result of a well-behaved child.  But if the LORD is not at the heart of my teaching, if I am not putting the LORD into the center of  what I am teaching my children, it is worth nothing!

Yikes.  I have realized that I have done a lot of laboring in vain.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.  They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

I have come a LONG way in my thinking in regards to family size, etc.  When I was growing up in a family of 4 children, I didn’t like it.  I actually thought that 4 kids was too many.  I wanted 3.  No more, no less.  (I like odd numbers- they feel more comfortable to me than even ones, is that strange?)

When we decided to get pregnant one last time for our third child, and I ended up with triplets, a lot of my preconceived ideas about family size, about “appropriateness”, about control over my own family size, were totally blown out of the water.

And while I have not yet quite converted to the “Quiverfull” theology, (Duggars) I can certainly understand it a lot better than I once used to.

The thing is, for the most part, whether we think we do or not, most of us believe on some level that children are a burden, that they are stressful, that they are an inconvenience, that they are expensive and that they will change and/or ruin our lives.

And you know what? Most of that is true!  Heck, all of that is true.

But… God says that children are a REWARD.

Think about that word, reward.  A reward is usually something that you earn for a job well done.  A prize.  You usually have to win something, or put fourth an effort in order to gain a reward.  Right?

Might children then be the same kind of thing?  Perhaps, we have to put up with the burden, the stress, the inconvenience, the expense and the changing of our lives in order to earn the reward.

Interesting concept.  Working hard and inconveniencing ourselves NOW for a reward LATER.

I don’t know about you.  But that’s enough for me.

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