Children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is a reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5

For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. Galatians 6:7b

Let’s face it, when you bring your 6 children in public, expect to be stared at by EVERYONE. Sometimes I can almost hear the marching band in the distance, feel the warm sun shining on me, and see the excited faces of the children, squeezing their sweet little faces through the crowd for a glimpse of the parade. And sometimes I’m tempted to have my kids toss candy to all the gawkers in the aisles of Costco just to see what they would do. I don’t usually mind the stares and when the comments come, I graciously smile and nod while continuing to push our grocery carts right on past them. But sometimes, they grate on my last nerve and I wonder why on earth it is so difficult for people to use a filter?

Several months ago, I realized I could not be a very good steward by continuing to shop at our local grocery store. I LOVE the amazing customer service, store cleanliness, and the friendly staff but the prices are expensive even when they are BOGO. For a family of 8, it just wasn’t feasible for us to continue shopping there on a weekly basis.

One of our family’s favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do (like grocery shopping!), do all to the glory of God.” It was important to me to be an example of good stewardship to my kids in everything we did, including grocery shopping. I wanted to glorify God in our grocery shopping and be a good steward of what He has given us. So when a friend offered me the chance to try out her Costco membership, I jumped on it! I was curious to see if we would see a huge savings in our grocery budget. It was SO worth it! Two months later, we purchased our own membership and have been saving ever since. (More on this next month!)

On one particular shopping trip to Costco, I had all 6 kids with me. We had just left our homeschool co-op and hadn’t eaten lunch yet. Feeling like superwoman, I promised the kids lunch at Costco before we shopped because, hello??? It’s like, $1.50 per kid to eat in the “Costco cafeteria”. Before we ordered, I asked the kids if they needed to use the restroom but everyone answered in the negative so we lined up behind every other person in Jacksonville waiting to eat pizza on their lunch break. While we waited for our food, I sent the kids to save a table for us within eyesight, of course! The pizza was finally ready

and I made my way towards the kids only to realize they chose a table smack dab in the middle of the eating area and there was no way on God’s green earth I was going to get our double seated cart with the twins strapped in to that table with our food. I stood there wondering what to do when a sweet older couple stood up and moved their table over so I could push the wide cart through. I pushed for 2 seconds before we slammed into the table directly behind them, upsetting someone’s drink and sending it spilling all over the floor. Mortification set in and I felt my face flaming as everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, stared at us. The shopper assured me everything was fine and cleaned up the mess herself while people at the surrounding tables get up and MOVED their tables so I could pass through. Seriously, it was eerily similar to musical chairs but just with adults, tables, and no music. We had scarcely taken a bite before W stood up, holding himself and dancing, “I gotta go potty! I need to go to the bathroom!” He wouldn’t let up, sit down or eat and there was NO way we were making it back out of there without rearranging more tables. So I did what I said I would never EVER do. I sent S with him to the women’s restroom, snatched up the twins with one on each hip, commanded the other two to finish their pizza and stood outside the eating area with my eagle eyes on the restroom door. I’ve seen too many Criminal Minds episodes and scene after scene flashed through my mind, imagining all the horrible things that could go wrong while my children were in a public restroom without me! What seemed like 15 minutes passed by before I saw them running out of the restroom toward me and I let out my breath. I herded them to our table without mentioning the running part at all (running indoors is a big no-no!) and we quickly finished eating. As we stood up to leave, one of the twins stuck his arm out, knocking over a smoothie and sending it splattering over the table and onto the floor. We used 4, 983 napkins to wipe up the mess and skedaddled out of there and over to the grocery area. No sooner had we rounded the first corner before the questions started coming. Are all of these children yours? Do you know how this happens? Are you going to have any more? You really should find out how babies are made and STOP making them! Wow, they are so well behaved! (Bless your heart for the kind observation!) Are the littlest ones twins? Do they all have the same daddy?

What?!?! I. Can’t. Even.

I was almost in tears at that point and we hastily finished our shopping, making our way toward the checkout. I noticed an older woman watching us as the twins kept throwing loaves of bread out of our cart. She finally made her way over to us and softly said, “I have 5 children of my own, all of them boys and I know exactly how you are feeling right now. Your children are precious gifts, beautiful and well behaved. You might not be able to see past this moment right now but you’ll make it and you’ll do a wonderful job raising your children. My boys are grown and gone now and they turned out just fine. One is a doctor, one is a lawyer, one is a professor and the other two have given me granddaughters. You keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be blessed.”

What?!?! There have been times when I have been discouraged, disheartened, worn out and weary and God always places exactly the right people in my path to encourage, affirm, and bless me with their kindness. This was one of those times and as I thanked that sweet woman who went out of her way to speak to me, I also thanked the Lord for loving me enough to send her to me. Her thoughtful, kind words were a healing balm to my frazzled spirit and hurting heart. Sometimes when I just want to give up because we have so many children and hear so many not-so-nice comments and get the strangest looks, the Lord always reminds me that these children are a gift from Him. They are His heritage and a reward and it is my honor and responsibility to raise them. It’s my job to plant seeds in them of His love. Seeds of kindness, compassion, grace, mercy, love, patience, forgiveness, peace, joy, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. And sometimes, that little reminder is all it takes.

“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9