God knows best...

"'I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said.'" - Luke 1:38 (NIV)


Parents know that in training their young children, much of the time is spent repeating themselves. After a while, it moves to threatening to punish the child if he does not obey his parents.


The Bible is full of stories of people and nations that God wound up having to punish after they turned away from him and sinned mightily. Some went as far as sacrificing children to false gods and pursuing sins of the flesh and wealth instead of following God like he commanded.


However, there were some who followed God no matter what was commanded, no matter how ridiculous it may have sounded at the time. Noah followed God's command to build an ark, even though rain was not heard of at the time. Moses went up against Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler on Earth at the time, to free the Israelites from captivity despite his own personal shortcomings and fear.


Then there was Mary. Some accounts of her life say she was only a teenager, pledged to be married to an older man. However, God picked her to be the mother of the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ. The only question she asked, despite her fears of being an unwed mother (she was only pledged to Joseph, not married to him just yet) and carrying the child of another, was "How will this be since I am only a virgin?" After the angel answered her concern, she simply said, "I am the Lord's servant."


In our lives, God indeed knows best. He knew us while we were still in our mother's womb. Like with Esther, He knows the time and place we are to be born and be the most use for His kingdom. He also is faithful, and will not let us bear more than we are able.


No matter what the situation, God has proven time and time again that we can trust Him, and that includes our salvation.

Children are a blessing...

Source: E! Online

"Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him." - Psalm 127:3 (NLT)

Yesterday morning, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar announced on NBC's "Today" show that they are expecting their 20th child, due sometime in the spring.

With that news, the critics have come out with their knives sharpened, claiming everything from spousal abuse (from Michelle Duggar being pregnant so often) to a strain on resources. Some have even said that nations should put limits on the number of kids a couple can have to save the planet.

This is just silly, and something I addressed in my old blog when another green concern was spoken with the family of Jon and Kate Gosselin:

A few years ago I saw an article about whether the family of Jon and Kate Gosselin, they of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" fame, is actually green, or environmentally friendly. Throughout the article, environmental experts weighed in that even though mom Kate Gosselin has done things like buying organic food whenever possible and recycling, and that the family has installed solar panels on their new home, they may still not be doing enough because the eight children are creating their "carbon footprints."

So say bits of the article:

One of the reasons for the lack of greenness is the emission of carbon dioxide.
 

Sure, we are to take care of the Earth, as God had Adam do in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2:15). But we are not to regard the Earth as so high that people are second or lesser options compared to it. The only thing or being that is be rated higher than people, according to God, is God Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ (these are tied in Jesus saying of the two greatest commandments).

And sure, raising children is hard work, as any parent will tell you. But we just have to cling to what Philippians 4:13 says about persevering:

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (NIV)

If the eight children depicted in the show lived in Britain, they would each emit about 750 tons of carbon dioxide over a lifetime, (Rosamund) McDougall (policy director of the U.K.-based Optimum Population Organization) explains. (American carbon-dioxide emissions per capita are about double that of Britain's.)

"What's more, if the eight children each had eight children, not taking into account the fact that eight husbands or wives would be absorbed from other families, there would be 64 grandchildren, each emitting 750 [metric tons] over a lifetime," says McDougall.

Another part of the quoted this:

"No matter what this family does, it could NEVER go green," writes one blogger on Treehugger.com. "The most green families are those with one child or none. So this family has absorbed the CARBON FOOTPRINT OF 8 FAMILIES. This is very greedy!!!"

However, one thing we all sorely need to understand is that children are not to be a burden, according to Scripture. They are not damaging to the environment just because they exist. Children, instead, are a blessing.