Sunday, November 4, 2012

Planned Parenthood??


My family ... amazing!  
Perfect??   umm... 
     if my kids heard the word perfect they just might burst out laughing or roll their eyes or walk out of the room, shaking their head in that way that says “you’re delusional”

But I'm the mom - I know
    we are perfectly put together.
These lenses in my eyes allow me to see my kids, my family, very uniquely, perfectly formed by a perfect Creator.

My five kids 
(no we didn’t adopt again
no I didn’t get pregnant again
yes my daughter got married and now he’s ours)
 are definitely amazing!
They are God’s gift to me, to both their dad and me.
We are a perfectly formed family.

Years ago I would hear people talk about their perfectly planned family - 
        3 kids, 
        3 years apart
        star athletes, full-ride scholarships.... you get the picture.

They had it all planned out.

We can’t relate to that. Every time we tried to plan it was shifted, just a little here, a lot there.
The backward glance on my life helps me to see what I once thought as disappointments, difficult waiting times, a seemingly silent God, were actually a perfect plan in motion.
Forming our family has been an adventure, one sweet life at at time finding each other.
Just as God intended

Because 
Before the world began ... He knew us
While I was in my mother's womb, He knew me
While in their birth mothers' wombs, He knew them
While in my womb, He knew them

 He knew my sweet girl, the one who made me a mommy, 
      a woman one who has learned how to live grace and give grace like few 
      others,
 He knew my first boy, a gift of life, 
      one who was created with such purpose, definitely wanted, wired to love 
      fiercely
 He knew my second boy, a life of great worth, 
      one who is divinely appointed and chosen, who will impact his world with a story of 
      life given 
 He knew my third boy, a treasure to all who know him, 
       uniquely gifted with empathy and wisdom beyond his years 
 He knew my dear son-in-law, 
       one who is discovering a Father who has been there always,
       one who has stolen her heart and ours

amazing...

each one of them, perfect, called by name


He knew how much I would blow it as a mom 
           and yet he picked me to be their mom. 
Amazing!
He knew we, as their parents, would be asked very hard questions, a lot of “whys” at such young ages
He knew we wouldn’t always have all those answers 
           and yet he picked us to be their mom and dad. 
Amazing!!
He knew I would love them so much my heart hurt 
          but that I didn’t really understand love like He does 
          my imperfect, learning-on-the-fly, dependent on God kind of love
                                 because He is Love
and yet He planned for me to be their mom. 
Amazing!!!

He knows the answers to some very hard questions that are asked in our home. Some answers I don’t have, but I’m confident He does have.

I don’t have a clue why people are cruel
I don't know why they abandon, or others abuse, why people bully, why there is rejection
I don't know why it some times looks like He’s standing there, with arms crossed, indifferent, while life is pummeling us to the ground.

But I do know He is not indifferent
I do know that before the world was even created that He already knew me, each one of us

The truth is
He has promised to never leave me, He does not abandon
The truth is
We are given a hope and a purpose in a world that is hopeless and purposeless

The truth is
 He hears my prayers
          He answers my prayers
          He knows the story of my life before I know it
So, sometimes with faith that is so small it is hard to even see - I will choose to trust my God

I will surrender to Him my parenting abilities
           I will give Him my plans for the future

I will love my family .... my amazing, God-put-together family!!










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