In His Image

I realize that there are not many men my age who are fathers to seven children, and beyond that, excited about it, but why do so many people think that we are trying to follow the Duggers? I get it wherever I go. “Oh! have you heard about that family in Arkansas who has 18 kids?!” As if we somehow heard about them one day and decided, Yeah! I want to be just like them!

Those of you who have large families, know that the work load is extremely high and the cost great to your social life, but if you want to have a successful family, it takes sacrifice and hard work. In today’s day and age, I don’t see many people wanting that for their life’s goal. I am among them. I would like to keep the personal sacrifices to a minimum because they are not easy. I like easy. Life is more enjoyable that way. But real purpose in life is not found that way. It’s not in trying to mold yourself into a shape that you think fits your goals, it is finding out from the manufacture what mold He had in mind when He made you! Then as we seek Him to guide us into His perfect plan, He gives us the joy and purpose in life and it is HIS purpose, not our own.

What does this have to do with the Duggers? Not much, except to say that Paul told us not to compare ourselves amongst ourselves. Why? Because then we start comparing the different molds that God has given each one of us. God does not call everyone to have a large family. Some days I wish He wouldn’t have called us like He did. But He did, and that is where it stands. I don’t hold up the Duggers as a pattern to be replicated as much as possible because for me to say that we should all be like them, is to say that the mold God maybe has for you, is not as good as the one the Duggers have. Neither is it right to say, “I am NOT going to be like them, that is TOO much.” We must each seek God on our faces and ask Him what He is calling us too, and then follow that with all our hearts and not look back.

Do I want to have as many children as we can? No. Do I want to quit having children, No. Neither do I want what the Duggers have! I want God’s best for OUR lives, because He knows what is best for me! And if that means that we someday drive a bus instead of the USS Stauffer, then so be it. But it will be because of HIS leading not someone else’s, and I want Him to have the glory, not ourselves or any other earthly thing.

We do not like to think about pain, we run from it! But what is God’s heart feeling right now as He looks at this world? We say we want the heart of God? Do we? Are we willing to feel His pain?

This has stirred my heart in a way I cannot express. Below is the excerpts from one of David Wilkerson’s Messages. This is the man who wrote “The Cross and the Switchblade.” He is a much older man now, but his message for us is one that comes out of years of ministry, and a brokeness seldom seem today.

If you want to download the entire message, I have included links to the mp3 files at the bottom.

These files are split into 5 parts to make it easier to download.  If you want to download it for future listening, just right-click on the link and then click “Save As” and put it in a file of your choosing.

A Call to Anguish – Part 1
A Call to Anguish – Part 2
A Call to Anguish – Part 3
A Call to Anguish – Part 4
A Call to Anguish – Part 5

We have been wanting to get our Photo greeting cards on the web for over two years now, and today it happened. We got another 10 inches of snow so I was stuck here and decided to tackle the job.

Here is a sample of one of the cards.

You can get to the site by clicking on the link in the right column, or click here.

Enjoy!

Yesterday was just a gorgeous day, full of sunshine and warmth.  I think it reached almost 50 degrees.  Then this morning we woke up to over 10 inches of white snow. 

 
This picture was taken Friday evening and it looked the same yesterday evening.  See that van back there.

  
This is the same one here! We ended up this evening with over 17" of snow!! It snowed all day, sometimes so hard that we couldn’t see 100 yards!  Stills at it too!  We canceled church since some of our members have to drive at almost two hours and those closer, still need to drive almost 30.  We called the neighbors and my folks up and invited them to have a service at our house and to share the day together!

What a blast!  It was so fun to just relax have fun today as an extended family of God’s children. 

We made a spring bunny, (the snow wouldn’t pack good enough to make a snowman, so we settled for whatever we could pack together in place.)  We ate lunch and supper together, had a snowball fight, played games, sat around with our guitars and sang for awhile.  It was just a very enjoyable day!!

It was wonderful to not have to worry about plowing, God will melt it in a day or so, or to worry about going anywhere, just can’t do it. (Dawson tried to make it around our loop of a driveway and it took him almost an hour, he got stuck twice and he had 4 wheel drive.)  Kinda reminded me a little bit of heaven.  There won’t be any worries there, the joy of the Lord is in our hearts, singing praises to our Redeemer, loving God, loving each other.  Makes me want to go there, Ya wanna join me?

A friend of mine posted this on his site and it is so close to where we are right now that I just had to share it with ya’ll.  (If anyone other than David reads this)