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Friday, April 9, 2010

Calling or just coincidence?

There are two basic thoughts on life:
1. Life just happens. Totally scientific, and if it works it works, and if it doesn't it doesn't.
2. Life is divinely appointed by God, the Giver of life - He decides if and when life will begin.
I like to believe that life is created under the premise of number 2.
So, yes, I suppose that with this belief I would say that ALL life that is created is a life that God has chosen to create.
Even with IVF, which Dave and I did to conceive our amazing twins, Luke and Emma. Yes, I had to take drugs to produce the eggs. Yes the eggs were surgically taken. Yes the egg was fertilized with a needle through a procedure called ICSE (don't ask me what that stands for, but it worked so I like it...a lot) and yes the embryo was then "transferred" back into me on day 5 of their conception. All very scientific. HOWEVER...
At the point the doctor sent me home and said "good luck" - I don't believe "luck" had anything to do with it. At that point God determined if that life would be fulfilled. Both embryos clung to the wall of my uterus (excuse the science lesson, I really do have a point here) and they took. But God, if He did not see fit for these lives to continue, did not have to allow that to happen. EACH and EVERY life is given by God - that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Now with that settled...
There are two basic thoughts about children:
1. You get the children you get because of genetics and environment and you do the best with what you got.
2. You get the children that God wanted you to get. He created them, He knew them before we even knew of them - like it says in Psalm 139:
13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day. (The Message)

With that said, our children are purposefully given to us to parent. Amazing! That means we have been called to parent our children.
I knew that I always wanted to be a mom and a wife. Then while I was at college pursuing my MRS degree God whispered to my heart that He wanted me to speak for Him. So, I listened and obeyed (one of the few times!) and began speaking. I moved to Nashville and was starting a speaking ministry when God whispered again at a really pivotal point, "I want you to start your family." Amazingly, I listened again! I moved home, met my husband two weeks later and here we are.
Sometimes I get lost in my daily routine, and I know as I speak to other mom's especially of young children, it's so common! Sometimes, it just feels like life. Not like some divine appointment from the Lord. Sometimes being a mom feels more like slave labor than a calling that God put on my life to fulfill. And sometimes I wonder if I'm the best mom that my kids could have.
But here is the reality:
This is our life, and how blessed we are! Children really are a blessing from the Lord although sometimes we forget that! But God called us to be mommy's! God doesn't call everyone to be mommy's for reasons that we may never know; but He called us. Our children are a blank slate that we have been entrusted to write on! What an amazing task that has been set before us! And God chose our kids to be our kids. He didn't choose Luke and Emma to be Emily's kids. He didn't choose Lily to be Billi's daughter. And He didn't choose Will to be Jennifer's son. He chose them to be my children. For a purpose. So, although at times I feel like I have absolutely no idea why or what I'm doing - God does! And He chose me to be right where I am raising these four wonderful amazing creations.
You, fellow Mommy, are fulfilling a calling - maybe a calling you never knew you had, but a calling none the less! Pretty amazing stuff!

4 comments:

Donna Wood

That speaking ministry may be post-poned, but you are definitely gathering material for it now! All in due time, God's timing...

Roxanne

Your words made me cry again, you are such a loving mom.

Billi

My sister-in-law has told me the same thing and I think it is such a cool way to think of it. We pick for ourselves so many things in life but our children are the one thing we have absolutely no control over. God specifically chooses each of them for us. That is so amazing when you think about it. He picked me to be the Mommy. Somedays I do wonder why, but if he trusts me with them then I figure who am I to give up!

Donna Wood

That speaking ministry may be post-poned, but you are definitely gathering material for it now! All in due time, God's timing...

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