Breakfast Perspective
As I sat with my children to eat breakfast this morning I began working on a mental seating arrangement at the table for when baby number 8 arrives. Breakfast, or any meal for that matter, is not a time in our home when most would choose to focus on such a thankless task. However I managed to see something more in the controlled chaos we call meal time. There is of course the occasional spill that must be cleaned up followed by the more common launch of a half-finished bottle across the baby tray and onto the floor. All of this happens as the twins try relentlessly to repeat the same question over and over in their best Julia Child's toned whine knowing that at some point mom or dad will crack. This all happens because their dad has taught them great table manners and politeness. Well is teaching....slowly.
It is times like this that I hear many friends and acquaintances and honestly perfect strangers ask the question, "Why?" They ask why we have so many kids. They ask why we would choose to continue to have kids. They ask why. They want to know why. They don't understand WHY!
The quick answer is that we have a vision in our home. It's not a vision like the apostles saw in scripture, but it is a multigenerational vision founded in scripture.
"Now this is the commandment, which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them...so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, and that your days may be prolonged...And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might...And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart...and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
You see if we can disciple these children well and if God shows his grace to each little heart then we have the hope of seeing a very full household become disciples of Jesus Christ. This is not only in terms of salvation but also disciples with a continued multigenerational vision so that my grandchildren will hopefully be able to share the same vision with their children.
"A good man leaves his children's children an inheritance." Proverbs 13:22
As of right now I do not have much of an inheritance of physical wealth to leave my children but I do have the greatest spiritual inheritance that a man can leave to anyone, namely a home saturated in the Gospel and a vision to see that Gospel take root and produce more fruit of salvation for generations to come.
So when the third bottle has been launched into the outer atmosphere of our dining room and the final explanation of why God made the posterior with cushion so that we would sit correctly instead of on our feet and knees has been given their is a perspective that I have that makes us continue. The perspective that God intended for marriage to be a picture of the Gospel and children to be a picture of the fruit of the Gospel. The perspective that in not too many years this table of organized chaos will be surrounded by Godly men and women who not only follow Christ but will hopefully go on to have a vision for their own table surrounded with children to disciple. It is that perspective that allows me to view every stepped on cheerio and small pond of spilled milk to be part of my sanctification process especially on mornings where I haven't had coffee yet. It is that perspective that gives me hope because it is a perspective that God's word challenges me to.
It is times like this that I hear many friends and acquaintances and honestly perfect strangers ask the question, "Why?" They ask why we have so many kids. They ask why we would choose to continue to have kids. They ask why. They want to know why. They don't understand WHY!
The quick answer is that we have a vision in our home. It's not a vision like the apostles saw in scripture, but it is a multigenerational vision founded in scripture.
"Now this is the commandment, which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them...so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, and that your days may be prolonged...And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might...And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart...and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
You see if we can disciple these children well and if God shows his grace to each little heart then we have the hope of seeing a very full household become disciples of Jesus Christ. This is not only in terms of salvation but also disciples with a continued multigenerational vision so that my grandchildren will hopefully be able to share the same vision with their children.
"A good man leaves his children's children an inheritance." Proverbs 13:22
As of right now I do not have much of an inheritance of physical wealth to leave my children but I do have the greatest spiritual inheritance that a man can leave to anyone, namely a home saturated in the Gospel and a vision to see that Gospel take root and produce more fruit of salvation for generations to come.
So when the third bottle has been launched into the outer atmosphere of our dining room and the final explanation of why God made the posterior with cushion so that we would sit correctly instead of on our feet and knees has been given their is a perspective that I have that makes us continue. The perspective that God intended for marriage to be a picture of the Gospel and children to be a picture of the fruit of the Gospel. The perspective that in not too many years this table of organized chaos will be surrounded by Godly men and women who not only follow Christ but will hopefully go on to have a vision for their own table surrounded with children to disciple. It is that perspective that allows me to view every stepped on cheerio and small pond of spilled milk to be part of my sanctification process especially on mornings where I haven't had coffee yet. It is that perspective that gives me hope because it is a perspective that God's word challenges me to.
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