OK, I can’t keep quiet any longer!

I have known for a whole week!   The news has leaked out here in Alaska but now we are going public.  I found out two days AFTER my hubby left.  It would have been nice to celebrate together. I would have known sooner but just misread the physical symptoms as pre-deployment stress.   Obviously, that was not the case.  I can now literally say my I have my hands full.

Baby number ten is on the way.

I am feeling pretty good so far considering how sick I usually am.  I am nauseous, sleepy, having a few migraines, and I can no longer stand the taste of my regular diet coke, but thankfully that is all.  Of course, that is ALWAYS open to change!  I would love not to have months of the usual vomiting and dry heaving though!

We already have a boy’s name and have narrowed our girl name down to three.  Due date as of now is November 23.  We will be having a very thankful Thanksgiving!

Psalm 127:1a Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me,when as yet there was none of them.

Praise the Lord with us! And please pray for our family.

My best friend is having a birthday! Isn’t he a handsome guy? He is the best guy you could EVER meet. There are so many adjectives that I could use to describe him but let me just say…… He is a godly man, my best friend, and I am so glad that I married him!!!!! Happy Birthday my love!!

Hubs and I are celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary today.  We went out to dinner last night and since we are currently remodeling the bathroom we are are spending the day trying to get our new bathtub in!

Let a wife make the husband glad to come home, and let the husband make his wife sad to see him leave ~ Martin Luther

Still on the theme of marriage and the church:

Ephesians Chapter 5:

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [1] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Now that we have read some scripture on the matter, consider the following quote I found over the weekend. I long for your thoughts and discussion afterwards.

It is possible (but not right) for baptized believers to act in their lives as though the gospel were not true. How many conservative husbands are outraged if some liberal preacher says that Jesus did not rise from the dead, when their daily treatment of their wives makes the same statement? At least the liberal only states his heresy occasionally. (Douglas Wilson, Reformed Is Not Enough, p. 168)

There have been several things this week that have caused me to try and hold back tears. Many of them are on a related subject, marriage. I am so thankful and so blessed to have the husband that I do. We have been blessed with a wonderful marriage. It is not one without struggles, every marriage takes work. We have a great God and have been blessed abundantly. It almost brings me to tears of joy to think of the abundance of grace, mercy, strength, and blessings the Lord has provided us in our marriage.   A cousin of mine recently celebrated 23 years of marriage!  In my family that is unbelievable!!!  I know some of the struggles they have gone through and know of the amazing working of God in their lives.  As I think upon this tears of joy begin to well up inside of me!

However, this week I received news of the pending divorce of some dear, dear friends of ours.  You hear of how divorce is just as common in the church; nothing makes that more strikingly evident than to realize that you know those who are going through it.  Tears of brokenheartedness for our friends well up inside. 

Tears for the state of the church are also building.  In the desire to minister to those of divorce, accountability and shame have been removed.  Yes, I said shame.  We are not to be shaming others but sin should carry shame.  Sin is shameful.  We are to hold others accountable.  This (holding others accountable) should be a part of our ministry to those who are struggling.  God desires reconciliation and provides the way and the healing.  It is not an easy road but how great and big is God??? 

In my husband’s line of work, he sees almost on a daily basis marriages falling apart.  It makes us more thankful for our own.   I have been contemplating this week my many tears.  Maybe it is just hormonal (my usual excuse-LOL) but maybe, just maybe, it is as it should be.  We should be in a place where we are brokenhearted and mourn over the sinfulness of this world, we should be brokenhearted and mourn when Christians choose the path of the world rather than God’s plan, and we should well up and cry tears of joy for the great, great God we serve and his many mercies toward us.

How often have you gone to a wedding? I have only attended one in the recent years because most of my friends have been married for some time now. The last wedding I attended was for the daughter of a friend. That must be a true sign that I am beginning to get old. As my oldest children grow into young adulthood and more of my friends’ children are marrying I find myself thinking on weddings more and more. Since hubby and I eloped, I never had that dream wedding. I often ponder what I think the perfect wedding would be like. Of course, I will try my best not to place that upon my children but maybe, just maybe, they will adopt some of my ideas as their own. Most likely my husband will be officiating the service.

As I think of the homilies given at so many weddings along with the admonishments and blessings, I often see one vital element missing. There is often mention of what real love is, the blessing of the Lord to bring the two together, the committment involved, how to manage through the tough times, faithfulness, a long and happy life together, honoring the Lord in the relationship, and living for the other person. There is rarely however any mention of children. There is rarely the mention of a heritage.

I wonder why this element of the marraige covenant is so often neglected. Is it partly because of our culture that we think children are for a later time? Have we forgotten that children are the natural outcome from the marital relationship? Scripture tells us however that a Godly offspring is what the Lord desires.

Malachi 2:15
Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

Did you know that there is an example in Scripture of a wedding blessing?  Did you know that it deals with that Godly offspring.  Make sure that as you read this blessing that you realize it was actually considered a blessing! 

Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become [the mother of] thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!”

I cannot think of a better blessing to give at a wedding. Can you?