Jen over at Et-Tu? has a FANTASTIC post called “Motherhood: God doesn’t called the equipped, He equips the called.“
I’ve come across a series of posts and comments lately related to the topic of determining God’s will for how many children you should have. I’ll pick on Sarah (of the very cleverly-named blog Sarahndipity) only because she offered a clear articulation of the point of view I’ve been puzzling over. In response to my interview with Hope, she wrote, “I would like maybe four kids total…I cannot imagine having 7, 8 or more. My husband and I are just not cut out for that.”
My initial reaction to statements like that is always, “Whoa! Does that mean there are people who actually think they are cut out for that?” In my life I’ve known one or two couples who, early in marriage, thought that they had what it takes to have five or six kids…and then had a drastic change of mind, usually around the time when the second baby started teething.
It seems to me that if God called only natural “supermoms” to have large families, there would be like five women in America with more than three kids. Maybe I’m doing some projecting here since I lack pretty much every skill one would want to be a mother to anything other than a Chia Pet, but I’ve come to believe that when it comes to having kids, nothing is more true than the old saying that “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”
Amen, amen, amen!
If there is one thing I hear over and over again (besides the ever-present, “My, you must have your hands full!”) it is this:
“You must be such a patient person to have such a large family! I could never do that…”
As if I am somehow part of an elite group of superwomen who are just “made” for this sort of thing.
True confession time: I’m not.
I am NOT a patient person. Never have been.
I have never been a gushy “ooh, I just loooove being around babies/small children!” In fact, I hated babysitting when I was a teenager. So much so that I truly worried whether I was cut out to be a mom AT ALL.
Jen writes it all so much more eloquently than I ever could, so I urge you all to go over there and read what she has to say!
I always thought I was the most calm, patient person. I never raised my voice or let my passions overtake my reason…..until I had kids!
But it was through them that I learned I really never had patience at all, and upon being humbled, I was able to work on obtaining the virtue. I’ll be working on it for a long time! 🙂