Musings from Graceland

FAMILY

The last couple of days have just been nice, regular family days filled with the everyday, good stuff of life....church, play, learning, worship, laughter, games, movies, books, time with friends, service to others. Sunday morning found us at church and J sharing a short but powerful word during the after-sermon ministry time. He shared out of Hebrews on not hardening our hearts toward God but that TODAY is the day to say "yes" to God and His salvation. That afternoon we celebrated the 4th birthday of one of the Princess' church friends. And that night A enjoyed time at the church teen group while J and our pastor battled a horrendous church flood caused by a toilet that was allowed to overflow and overflow and overflow and....well you get the message. YUK! Yesterday was a stay home day for all except for J who had work and a firefighter function. This morning A & B are off with hs friends to go roller skating & get A's "Who's Who" photo taken for the yearbook. Afterwards, B's best friend C will come home for a playdate before I take them to clogging tonight and the boys have scouts.

Life with kids period can be crazy...but with 7, its amazingly so! But its a good crazy. The wonderful, fun times we spend together add joy to the journey. As I've told people before, a family this big is just a party waiting to happen! And then the bad, hard times? Well, they are just chances to grow in God and His grace. And yes, I get a lot of those chances, too.

But despite the hectic and hard pace we sometimes face, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love my kids and hubby. I love my life and thank God for it.

The other night, I asked the kids what they liked about our family. Here were their responses:

"Why do you like our family?"

3 year old T: "Because we go to parties."

5 year old L: "I like my family because [Baby M] is cute, T is funny, and P is funny, and me and B copy each other, and Daddy is funny, too, and Mom is funny, too, and D is good at his comics, and A shares her hairbrushes with me."

7 year old P: "I love my family because we help work together!"

9 year old D: "Because Grandfatehr teaches me woodworking."

11 year old B: "Because y'all let me pursue my dreams."

And 13 year old A: "Because when I think I'm 'all that', they remind me that I'm not..."

Yep, being family means we party and play together, but we're also there to help each other get over our issues and get on with being what God intended us to be...and sometimes that means being told we're not "all that".

Praising God for my family and finding comfort in Romans 8:28 that He's using ALL these things for our good, to make us more like Jesus because HE LOVES US!