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

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)

It is with great thankfulness in my heart, that I get to present to you, my newest daughter,

Aimee Lynne Stauffer (but she shall be called “Lynne”)

There are many thing of which I could write, bu since I got to do most of the calling on the phone, I will let my wife share the details over on her blog.  But for right now, I will share that she was born last night, at 8:47 pm, and weighed 9 lbs and 6 oz.

“Thank you Lord for trusting us with any gift from you!  May we always remember that you have only loaned them to us and that our greatest job to bring them back to you!  Oh Lord, may you give me the grace and ability to humbly mirror the picture of you, onto the hearts of my children.”

I know that this song is an old one but I just found it a couple of weeks ago and it has blessed me so much! It was written by Bill & Gloria Gaither and the music was written by Buddy Greene.