A Future Dugger Family?
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.
