Good Night, John Boy!

"You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.

 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;

your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.

Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD."

(Psalm 128:  2-4, NIV)

Growing up, we watched "The Waltons" weekly.  Dad liked the show so much, that later on, he began to videotape the reruns and probably has about every episode on VHS.  Yes, those were the days!  "The Waltons" was a good, clean family show depicting life during the Depression.  A large family lived together in a white clapboard house, including the grandparents.  Many scenes would be set around the family table.

Let's fast forward to the 21st century.  We have shows like "Kate plus Eight" or "19 Kids and Counting".  Reality shows of large families, but in much more turmoil than the Waltons lived in, especially Jon and Kate.  America seems fascinated by these large families, maybe because, nowadays, they are a novelty.  Statistics used to say that an average family consisted of "2.5 children".  I always said I wanted the half-child. :)  Of course, this is being written by a woman with no children. 

During Biblical times, it was a blessing to have a large family.  Psalm 127:5 says, "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them (children)."  If a woman's womb was barren, she was considered cursed.  Remember the story of Sarai and Hagar?  Sarai asked Abram, her husband,  to sleep with Hagar, her maidservant, so Hagar would  become pregnant in order for Sarai to have a child.  Desperate people do desperate things!  But, then God went on to to bless Abraham and Sarah, and they bore Isaac, and Abraham became known as the "father of many nations".

Millions of innocent babies are being aborted yearly because women consider them to be an "inconvenience" and it's their "choice".  If you have children today, consider them to be a blessing from God.  When you tuck them in at night and turn out the lights, thank God for them.  And, don't forget to say, "good night to John Boy!"