I do not know of any talents I have, unless you count having kids. I had 4 so that should put me in as talented, especially for having 4 boys (like I had anything to do with it), unless you count the girl we have In Heaven. God must have known she would not survive the ruffins and took her home for her protection. My boys were great. They were not your typical quiet little boys that sat in a chair reading books. They were “swing off the chandelier and jump on the couch as world federation wrestlers” type of kids. If something could be taken apart, they would do it and did do it at times. We all came in the plus size version, so there was more to love, which made furniture testing a sure thing. Too bad I didn’t get paid for that deal, I would have been a millionaire! “Here, test the strength of this couch for us!” My boys would have tested it thoroughly.
You cannot convince me God does not have a sense of humor. Giving me 4 rambunctious boys is a laugh a minute. They have kept me laughing from the time they were born and crying at times. When my youngest was born, he was a delightful surprise. We had had 4 miscarriages (my girl) and were told that we probably would not have any more children- then along came Matt. The whole pregnancy we were told, “you got your girl”. When he was born my husband said, “I’m not telling her”, so the nurse had to tell me we had a son. What could I do? Put him back? No all I could do was laugh and accept it. And, oh what a blessing he has been to us. He is our helper in chief. He has been one of our greatest blessings as we have 4 blessings with our sons.
If only I could continue to take life in stride like that and just laugh at our difficulties, knowing they won’t be as bad as I think they will be. Looking back at what we have been through and the trials and fun times, I can honestly say Jesus brought us through it all. He knew what was best even when I had no clue.
My oldest son was quite a handful at times. If you told him the sky was blue he would argue it was purple. It seemed as if he was the very definition of headstrong and stubborn. One preacher told us we just have to spank him more, so I became very dedicated to spanking him and he would just look at me and say that didn’t hurt. No amount of discipline seemed to work with him. When he was 14 or 15 he was very rebellious and difficult. He made life very hard. It got so bad we were discussing whether to let him live with a relative so that he could be happier and the younger kids would not imitate his rebellion. I know, I know, it sounds so horrible to think of letting your son live with someone else, but we were at our wits end.
Shortly after the Columbine shooting had happened, my son, who didn’t give much thought to the consequences of his actions at times, got on the internet and said he thought he heard a rumor that there was a bomb at Toll Gate high school. Now my son was homeschooled, he had never even been to Toll Gate. I will never forget- we were at a parent’s appreciation banquet at church, and the police showed up to question my son. They arrested him that night and took him to jail. I was utterly destroyed. When we went to court, the judge said he wanted to make an example out of my son so others wouldn’t do what he did. He sent him to the training school. I remember just wailing. I couldn’t cry, but just wailed. I had always read of wailing in the Bible, and now I understood just how you could be in so much despair, all you could do was wail. How could this happen to our son whom we prayed for continuously and made sure he was in church every time the doors opened? I remember crying out to God asking what He was doing. How could He let this happen? We tried to do everything right. Seeing my son in handcuffs broke my heart.
He was released after 3 days. Three days of mama not sleeping, worrying about him, praying for him. He was released on home confinement and put on probation. And the ramifications of his misdeed continued. We had been homeschooling under the table (not having state approval), so the judge sent a social worker to our house to investigate whether the kids could stay with us or be removed from the home. We knew God had it under control, but at the same time, what in tarnation was He doing? It seemed crazy. But, the social worker came to our house and she said, “I know you people! My son goes to your church. I am writing a good report for you.” And she did. My son was released and came out a changed person. He never once gave us any trouble after that. What seemed crazy to us was God working out His plan. My son was no longer the rebellious type, but his life was changed and he truly began to be a follower of Christ.
If you are going through some crazy times or difficult trials, just hold on. God does work in mysterious ways and what we thought was absolutely crazy turned out to be one of the best things to happen to our family. I heard a lady say once, “when we cannot understand the plan or when life doesn’t make sense, remember we are looking at the tapestry of life from the underside”. Only when you look at it from God’s side, the topside, will you be able to see the beautiful picture He is weaving for us. It will one day be a beautiful picture of God’s mercy and grace. All we have to do is trust. Trust and obey, for there is NO other way to be happy In Jesus. Trust the Plan. He has it all under control.
