Putting it back in perspective...

There seems to be a context influx of noise in my life and sometimes, if I'm not careful, I start believing thoughts that aren't true.

Some of the non-truths I have unfortunately believed at some point or another in my lifetime are:

- Credit card information gets stored on hotel key cards
- Toe jam is really tiny little invisible worms that you can't see so wear socks to keep them from crawling up your legs
- You urine will be clear if you are getting enough water (uh - that means you're getting TOO much water)

One of the more recent non-truths I have bought into in my subconscious is that children are really just a lot of work and deciding to have them means deciding to end your so-called life :)

Now married, the idea of children isn't just something that "may occur in the very far away future," but something that could occur at any time if God should so choose. To be honest, that scared me to death.

While some fear is healthy, God is teaching me that my fear is not from Him at all and that I need to be careful not to take others opinions as more than what they are - opinions.

Psalm 127 says: "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" (vv. 3-5).

Twice now God has brought that passage to me, and I believe to fulfill a specific purpose. My outlook on bearing and raising children had become dreadful, and honestly, sinful, and therefore, He wants to dispel it.

Carolyn Maheney conveyed truth to me this way in her book "Feminine Appeal":

"What words or images come to your mind when you think about your children?" (or for me, the possibility of them) "Are you inclined like I was to think: work,, responsibility, sacrifice, burden, more work?

Look at the words the psalmist used to describe children: heritage, fruit, reward, arrows. Then he followed with this exclamation: 'Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!'"

What a timely message for me. How faithful God is to renew our minds with truth, removing our doubts and replacing lies with truth.

Children do require work and sacrifice and responsibility but God says to gain life, we lay ours down. How I hope that in His perfect time He will give me this blessing, and that in the deepest core of me I will hold on to the truth that they surely are a reward that I do not deserve.

If you have children, may I encourage you to remember today that they indeed, though time, emotion and energy consuming, are primarily a reward and a blessing? Remember and tell them.