I've been studying the book of Matthew for months. I've read it before, but I don't think I've studied it in this way until now. Armed with my Bible, a cup of coffee (or four), and a couple of good commentaries, I get up and study. It's been amazing to me what all The Lord has shown me through His word. It is full of wisdom and truth that applies to life today just as much as it has since It was penned. So much changes in our world every day. New discoveries are made. Things that used to be good for you, are now bad. Things that used to be unknown are discovered. Things that used to be bad for you, aren't bad anymore. Human knowledge is always growing, evolving and changing. Not so with God. The things He said 6000 years ago, are still true today. There have been no new discoveries that surprise God. Things that we just learned in medicine 200 years ago were written right there in the scriptures from the beginning if we only had looked.
But man thinks he is smarter than God. We always have. It didn't take the serpent a lot of convincing to get Adam and Eve to disobey God. They already thought they knew better, they were just waiting for someone else to confirm what they already "knew". I am no different.
I remember when we learned I was expecting our first child. I wasn't saved. Oh I had grown up (sort of) in church, and gone to Catholic school. I knew all the names of the garments a priest wore, and the names and purposes of all the sacraments. I did not, however, know The Lord. I did not have a relationship with Him. I had not repented and trusted Him as my Lord and Saviour. So anything I wanted to know about babies and pregnancy and childbirth, I searched the internet and books and talked to other mothers I knew. Some of the advice I got was solid. Some was not. By trial and error we survived and our daughter was born. Whew! Then came our son. Newly saved I was so fragile in my faith, still learning and growing. Although the scripture was vital to my life, I still held on to the desire to do what fit in with society and what the culture and traditional wisdom said was best. Holding on for dear life with two small kids, we decided that was all we could handle, oh goodness, we couldn't handle them!
But as The Lord began to guide us through His Word, and as we came to know some seasoned and mature Christian couples who were successfully raising children to know The Lord, something changed. I began to see that what God said, stood the test of time. What man said did not. No matter the topic: breast feeding, discipline, birth control, medicine, food, marriage, exercise. (Bet you didn't know the Bible covered all of this). Every time we chose to follow Gods word, it was a better outcome. Now don't get me wrong, this is not why we chose to follow Christ, because our lives would be better. He is the One and only way to eternal salvation, and no one can come to the Father but by Him. That is why we follow Jesus. He is the only Way. But what we came to realize is that blessings followed obedience. And it continues today.
We now have 6 children: 4 here on earth, 1 on the way, and 1 in heaven. Just as The Bible says, they are blessings. Each of them in a different way. Each gifted with different strengths and talents and weaknesses, all made in His image and precious in His sight. It pains me to know that we almost missed so much. We almost "chose" to stop with our second child. We had doctors and friends who assured us we already had the perfect number, so why not stop while we were ahead.
Our culture has such a strange way to approach things. For certain things, we are to be accepting and "tolerant". But for some things, which I am coming to see relate to God and what He says, the "tolerance" just isn't there. For example: we are told to be tolerant of same sex marriage, but we shouldn't tolerate a mother choosing to breast feed her baby in public! (which is the way all other mammals do it but for some reason we think powder made by humans is much much better than what God provides). Don't jump on me. I bottle fed my first 2 kids. Another example: we are told to accept and tolerate birth control, and even made to pay for it for others now, but we don't have to tolerate or respect a mothers choice to have more than let's say 3 or 4 kids. It's perfectly acceptable to mock and ridicule a mother in public for breast feeding or for having a mess of kids, but don't you dare say something negative to a woman who chooses to use birth control (again don't judge, I've done that too), or a couple who chooses homosexuality. I've been on both sides. Accepted and ridiculed. Swimming the mainstream currents and paddling against them.
But it all comes back to Gods word. Now of course some things aren't so cut and dry. And that's on purpose. God wants a relationship with us, He wants us to pray and seek Him for answers. But a lot of times it's right there in black and white. Matthew 7:24-27 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
"Hears these words of Mine and does them". For years we built our house on the sand of society and the advice of our culture. We heard His word, but didn't put it into practice. Now, we are building our house on The Rock, aligning our views and opinions with that of Gods. And that means we BELIEVE what HE says, even when it goes against what society says, or mainstream medicine says, or what the government says. His Word will stand forever. Now again, don't get me wrong, mainstream medicine has done some amazing things, and we have benefited from many of them. All 3 of our births so far were c-sections. But when there is a conflict between what our society says and what the Creator of the Universe says, we're sticking with God. So for those of you who caught it, yes, I did say we were expecting. And after our loss last year, this blessing is even more special. So when society says "you have the right to choose", I will choose life; when society says "burden", I will agree with His Word that says "blessing"; when society says we already have our hands full, we will agree with His Word that says, "Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate".
It won't be easy, He told us it wouldn't. But in the end, we will be blessed...and our house will stand.
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