My Quiver is Full

Psalm 127:3-5

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

When I was a little girl and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would always answer "I want to be a mommy". As I grew there were other things that I thought I might like to be but wanting to be a mom was always at the top of my list. I always said I wanted six kids. I don't know why I chose the number six. In my immediate family we had four kids. My parents came from families with five kids in one and seven in the other. I grew up watching the Waltons so maybe all of those facts had an effect on how many kids I wanted. No matter how many kids I ended up having all I knew is that I wanted a houseful. 

The Bible tells us that our children are a reward and that we will be happy with a full house (v.5). When I was a teenager I was told by a doctor that I probably would never be able to have children. But I kept holding on to the dream of someday being a mommy. When my husband and I were ready to start our family we had no idea that it would be almost two years before we would conceive. 

We went on to have three children. Our boys were born only sixteen months apart and then I miscarried our next baby. Our daughter was born almost three years after our second son. As they were wheeling me into the OR the orderly asked me if this would be it, meaning were we stopping our family after this baby. I quickly told him that he'd see me again in a couple of years because we wanted more children. But it wasn't to be. Because of complications during her birth the doctor warned us against having any more children. Three would be it for us.

At times during their growing up years, when our kids would chafe under our rules or protection, I'd tell them that they had to excuse us because God only blessed us with three babies to care for and they are precious to us. If we had more maybe things would have been different for them.Of course that part wasn't true because no matter how many kids we had we would have cherished them just the same. But it helped to remind them that we knew they were a blessing from the Lord. We never forgot that.

Now that our children are all grown and living away from home I miss having a full house. I miss the teasing and laughing around the supper table. I miss our discussions and everyone talking at once. I love it when they all come home, especially if they can all come at once. Our boys have both married wonderful girls and our daughter is dating a great guy, so I have the six kids I always wanted.

Nothing can make me happier than to know that they get together when they are away from home. Last night, our daughter's special guy, sent me a picture of the six of them together at the home of our oldest son with the caption 'come and join us'. Because of the wonderful technology of Facetime I was able to 'be' with my kids and we were all together again. Yes, children are a heritage and a reward from the Lord. They are a blessing and I am SO thankful for them. 

Behol