Babbling About Babel and Babies

I'm sorry I didn't inform you that I needed a blogging break for the past two weeks. I would have told you, only I didn't know it myself, until, lo and behold, it's been nearly two weeks since I've laid eyes on this blog.

It's not so much that I needed a blogging break, but a better description would be that I had writer's block. My mind and heart have been full of some heavy stuff lately, and there are some things that I just can't write about here. At times, it's too hard to look past all the stuff to write about the simple pleasures of my life.

How do you like the vagueness in this post thus far? It reminds me of Charlie Brown's teacher...blah, blah, blah.... In a nutshell, the CupRunnethOver family is fine, and we are all glad the last two weeks over and done!

Moving right along.

Where Rick typically leads us in a family devotion in the evenings, I was flying solo tonight. I picked up my favorite children's Bible, The Jesus Storybible Book, and asked Liam to choose a story from the table of contents. He chose "A giant staircase to heaven", which is the story of the Tower of Babel.

You can find the adult version of the story in Genesis 11, but here's the gist. After Noah and his family left the arc, they multiplied a few times over (Okay, maybe more than a few times over, but I haven't looked up their family tree.), and they were living in one area and speaking one language. They decided to build a tower tall enough to reach the heavens.

As you can imagine, that was quite the undertaking, and their hearts were not in the right place. We cannot simply walk to heaven of our own accord; we need salvation through Jesus in order to reach heaven.

God was not happy with Noah's descendants' plan, because it was not His plan. Therefore, He chose to change their tongues. Instead of everyone speaking and understanding the same language, suddenly they each spoke different tongues and no longer understood one another.

Can you imagine the frustration of awaking one day to not understand the people that you spoke to the day before? Suddenly, everyone around you sounds like a babbling idiot! And they think you're the babbling idiot. I'm not sure about you, but I think I might get a little angry.

And they did. They fought a great deal, until they finally began dispersing themselves and starting new lives in different areas of the world. This is why we have different languages today, but that isn't the point here.

As I explained to my boys, the point is that we must remember to follow God's plan. We can't simply take a map and walk to heaven. We need to seek Jesus, and there we'll find our salvation. Once we're saved, we have to seek Him through prayer, Bible study, and Christian fellowship, in order to keep ourselves in line with His plan.

Our own plans will fail us, but God's plan is best. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' delcares the Lord. 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" (Jeremiah 29:11) I want my boys to desire nothing less than seeking His plan.

Somehow, this discussion of the Tower of Babel led us into a discussion of baby #4. Liam said, "Mommy, I really want a baby sister."

(Has anyone else noticed how these difficult topics come up at bedtime? My boys' timing is impeccable.)

"Well, Liam," I said. "I don't know if we're going to adopt anymore kids. Daddy and I feel pretty blessed with three boys, and we're not sure that we're supposed to have anymore kids."

"But I really, really want a baby sister, " he begged.

"Then, you need to pray to God and tell Him what you desire. But if He chooses a different plan for our family, then we need to be content with our family the way that it is. We are very blessed to have two parents and three boys," I added.

The four of us talked for a few more minutes about various world crisis, such as hang nails, scratchy throats, and frigid room temperatures. (All of the world's problems seems to arise at bedtime, I tell you.)

Eventually, I had to wrap it up and asked the boys to each think of their own prayers for that night. I reminded them to think of something to thank God for and something to ask of Him.

After a moment of quiet reflection, we closed our eyes, and I called on each boy to pray.

Jack: "Dear God, thank you for the trees, the grass, and the earf. Will you please give us a baby, because I really want a baby. But if you don't want us to have a baby, then that's okay, because we have a good family. But I really want a baby. Amen."

Liam: "God Jesus, [Yes, he addresses God that way every time.] thank you for this day and for all the food and for this house. If it's okay, please you give us a baby? If you don't want us to have a baby, then help us to be grateful for our family. Amen."

Garrett: "God Jesus, [He does pretty much everything the same as Liam.] thank you for this day. I want a baby. If you don't want us to have a baby, then help us to be happy with three boys. Amen."

By george, I think they understood the point of my babbling about Babel and babies, however it is we got there.