All Shapes and Sizes
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Just me on Saturday, July 04, 2009 12:00 PM
I had to smile this week when I read Rachel’s lovely article entitled The Case for Large Families. As the eldest of five children, I don’t need to be convinced by Rachel that a large family can be such a great cause for joy. I count my two sisters and two brothers and their spouses as my very best friends and feel blessed that our family remains close at heart despite our lack of geographic proximity.
The reality for Greg and me has been a bit different - only God knows the perfect size for our family and we’ve always done our very best to remain open to His perfect will for our lives. For whatever reason, He seems to think that this Catholic mom has her hands full with two wonderful sons. Some of the commenters in Rachel’s post discussed the importance of following God’s will in our attempts to follow the precepts of the Church. The reality is that this looks different for every family. Some families like Rachel’s and Danielle’s are blessed with an abundant number of children. Others, like mine, do our very best to raise our smaller families. There are even those among us gathered here at Faith & Family who for a variety of reasons do not have children.
The truth is, beautiful Catholic families come in many shapes and sizes. The thing I loved about Rachel’s original post is that she called on each of us to remain open to the beauty of life and to cherish the relationships we do have. In my little world, our family of four does our very best to be a light to others and to follow God’s perfect will in our own way. I don’t necessary know what the future holds for me, or whether my family will welcome more children (or grandchildren!). But I remain content in the knowledge that happy, devout Catholic families come in all shapes and sizes.
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