He Wept

 I was pregnant with baby no.5 checking out at Walmart when the middle-aged cashier asks, "Are all these kids yours?” Oh, HERE we go. 

I say brightly, "Yes, they are!" 

She says, "Oh, wow. And you are going to have another one." 

“Yeah!" I answer. 

She studies my kids, my belly, (always fun), asks more questions, then exclaims sympathetically, "Wow, you POOR lady!”

I really didn't know what to say to that, but I just laughed a bit and left.

I kept thinking about her statement, "You poor lady" and it bothered me all day. It made me think: Why should having a bunch of kids make people feel sorry for me? I TOTALLY get that she was most likely coming from a well-intentioned place and I get that people see my situation as busy, tiring, and hard, and while it can be ALL those things, I just don't think people should feel sorry for me at all! I chose this!

Between the laundry & dishes, the whining & fighting, the laughing & snuggling, they teach me the most incredible, intense, fierce, profound love. They need me & I need them! These valiant spirits came to this confusing world needing direction, guidance, and a loving home to help shape them into GOOD PEOPLE. I’m both honored and terrified by this responsibility. I have six amazing humans! It’s not always easy. I make many mistakes. But every night when I pray, the first thing I thank Him for are those kids! (Then I ask for help.) But do I feel poor? No way! I feel grateful. I feel joy.

And so does Christ, who shows us just how HE feels about children! He’s surrounded by them when he says, “My joy is full.”

Then He wept.

And “he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.” 3 Ne. 17:21

And then He wept again! 

As the heavens opened & encircled them with angels and fire, He said, “Behold your little ones.”

I imagine being there as a mother, witnessing 

He who is divine,

He who performed miracles,

He who we glorify, 

He who saved the WORLD,

Love & feel SO deeply for my children that He weeps.

Pretty good reminder.

“We are the ones God has appointed to encircle today’s children with love and the fire of faith and an understanding of who they are.” -Ballard