Can you remember back to what you were told before you were
married about marriage? If you aren’t married yet, just think to what people
tell you about marriage.
Get to know each other before you have children.
Take time to travel and experience “life” before you have
children.
Establish a large bank account, large home, new vehicles,
etc. before you have children.
Do any of these sound familiar to you? Unfortunately, they
do to me. I heard all of those and more after Chad
and I were engaged. In fact, I told myself I wasn’t going to have children
until after I was tenured and “secure” in my teaching. Good thing God changed
my mind about that! If I would have listened to myself, I would have missed out
on my first three children!
Nancy Campbell discusses the types of blessings that were
said over a newly married couple in the Bible. They are in stark contrast to
what blessings are said today. While she quotes and discusses many of those
passages, I’m just going to mention one—Rebekah (because it is the freshest in
my mind considering my husband mentioned her in his sermon last week).
Let’s recap the story briefly. Abraham sent a servant back
to his homeland to find a wife for Rebekah. He said that whoever offers his
servant water and water for his camel would be the woman. Rebekah was that
woman. The servant went to her home and told her father what had happened and
said that Rebekah must go back with him right away to become Isaac’s wife
(remember, Rebekah had never even seen Isaac!).
Rebekah and her father both consented and before she left, her family spoke a
blessing over her.
“And they blessed Rebekah, and said
unto her, Thou art our sister, be though the mother of thousands of millions,
and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” ~ Genesis 24:60
In most people’s eyes, they had every reason to say, “Wait
until you get to know each other first!”, but they didn’t. They chose to speak
a great vision for her. What greater vision can we have than to live a life for
God and do His will?
I love that photo of your girls!
ReplyDeleteI remember a friend telling me that she and her husband were going to establish a foundation for their marriage before having kids, so that when their kids were grown and gone, they would still have things in common besides their children to keep them together. I thought to myself later: 'Firstly: You will not be the same people as you were way back then anyway. Children change everything. And secondly: you will still have your children in common, and your grandkids etc.' You never stop being a mum.
I am glad that we had the blessing of children spoken over us at our wedding :) Our pastor was always very perplexed about all the young people he married not having children.