Every so often it happens. Someone makes a comment about the size of our family and sometimes, it can be met with grace and charity, other times with a flip comment or two and the conversation either dies or moves on. At one point, a friend who knows me well and was present when another person who was new to the school was going on and on about my family's size, gave me a look like, "You going to put up with this?" Yes, because his wife was listening to my answer, which meant there was a possibility of being a better witness through less snark.
"Do you see all these people?" I asked the couple as I gestured to everyone who was at the event, people milling about bustling through everywhere. "I know them. Some of them for years. I know that there are some here who are enduring their husbands being stationed overseas in Iraq. I know that some of them lost their jobs or had to get new ones that were less secure. I know a woman here who is a widow and another who has just finished a year recovering from a painful divorce. Some of the people here have lost children or care for their parents who can't care for themselves. This is a real place with real people and as far as I can tell, I have the easiest cross of them all. I just have to love these ten people in my life well." Now that doesn't mean loving them or loving them well is always easy; only that from what I can know, it is the easiest cross around and I know I wouldn't want to trade my cross for anyone else's.
1 comment:
I love that! Loving your children is the easiest cross to bear. I'm going to remember that when people make comments on our family. =)
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