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I ran across this precious poem on Amy’s Humble Musings this morning (thanks Kathy!), and just had to post it. It is especially encouraging to me as I carry our seventh baby…and even those of us strong in our conviction and desire for children still waver from time to time…we are still human, prone to weakness and doubt and fear. We never tire of encouraging words, do we?
The Old-Time Family
By Edgar Guest
It makes me smile to hear ‘em tell each other nowadays
The burdens they are bearing, with a child or two to raise.
Of course the cost of living has gone soaring to the sky
And our kids are wearing garments that my parents couldn’t buy.
Now my father wasn’t wealthy, but I never heard him squeal
Because eight of us were sitting at the table every meal.
People fancy they are martyrs if their children number three,
People fancy they are martyrs if their children number three,
And four or five they reckon makes a large-sized family.
A dozen hungry youngsters at a table I have seen
And their daddy didn’t grumble when they licked the platter clean.
Oh, I wonder how these mothers and these fathers up-to-date
Would like the job of buying little shoes for seven or eight.
We were eight around the table in those happy days back them,
We were eight around the table in those happy days back them,
Eight that cleaned our plates of pot-pie and then passed them up again;
Eight that needed shoes and stockings, eight to wash and put to bed,
And with mighty little money in the purse, as I have said,
But with all the care we brought them, and through all the days of stress,
I never heard my father or my mother wish for less.
Maybe sometimes we just need to be reminded of what’s really important in life–people, relationships, family–those are the earthly things that matter.
1 comment
The power of poems is amazing. I have heard it said many a time that overcoming or just enduring hardship makes one stronger and wiser.