Shared in Being Quiverfull
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:::Imagine being a parent with a dream to live and serve the Lord as a unified family. Now, imagine that this dream includes placing eight children and your wife in a couple of four-door cars and embarking on a journey of home education, family discipleship, and gospel evangelism that will last more than one million miles. Imagine that, along the way, you collectively memorize the New Testament by heart, live by faith on pennies a day, battle truant officers, sing in hundreds of churches, and, in the process, share the kind of glorious experiences that knit the hearts of parents and children together for a lifetime.
This dream became a reality in the lives of a rare, visionary father named Arnold Pent II and his family of eight very musical children. Together with his wife Persis, Arnold cast a unique vision for discipleship and evangelism which resulted in the Pents earning the title of “the world’s most unusual family.” Ten P’s in a Pod was compiled from the journals of Arnold Pent III, written when he was age seventeen to nineteen. Originally self-published in 1965, Ten P’s in a Pod became something of an underground classic as Christian readers across the nation began to share by word of mouth with their friends this absolutely unique and inspiring adventure of family vision and gospel evangelism. Though the book ends in the early 1960s, the story of the Pent family continues to the present day, as the children of Arnold Pent II, now grandparents in their own right, continue to build by God’s grace upon the remarkable heritage bequeathed to them by their father and mother, thus making the true legacy of Ten P’s in a Pod one of multi-generational faithfulness and honor.
There is such an incredibly amount of debate going on about the family sizes of folks these days. Almost every board I've seen is debating the Duggar Family and their chosen life, not to mention throwing in families from days gone by....such as the Arnold Pent II family mentioned above, the Gilbreath family (original Cheaper by the Dozen movies) and other families of size. Does it seriously chap the minds of people how another family chooses to live? I mean, sure, everyone is going to have an opinion of either being inspired by these families or being disgraced by them, but does it really make a difference in your day to day life one bit that one family has 17 children and wants more, or that another family only has 2 children and has chosen to stop there? I don't understand the hubbub over what another family chooses to do. I have my opinions (hush! be nice!) and I do share what I believe to be true in Scripture for my family. If you don't have children, that's your chosen path. if you have a dozen children, that again is your chosen path. We pay our own way here. We are not living off the State monies out there as has been suggested by folks. My husband has a strong burden in his heart to provide for his family and that is what he does. Sure, we could "have more, do more" if I were working (btw, I'm not some idiot sitting here because I cannot get a well-paying job....I could easily work and receive the same pay my husband makes; I've had several jobs in my lifetime, and we have chosen to have me HOME now because we believe that is what Scripture tells us...my first calling is that of a helpmeet to my husband...my second calling is that of mother.) We have different priorities in our lives than to have this or that just because we want it or want to have it because so-and-so has it. Our focus isn't on material things. As they say, you can't take it with you There are so many things that any given family does that another might not. Does it change your mind on watching television if I tell you we don't? Does it change your mind on listening to the radio if I tell you we most often don't? How about if we choose to grow our own foods and not buy mass-produced boxed stuff at the grocery store? Is that going to change what you buy for your family? We wear dresses only and practice headship veiling....does that change anything in your daily life at all? Yet all over the message boards and forums out there, people are pounding their fists at the large families in general. It's ridiculous. I don't get it, I guess. I am inspired by large families. I love to see how they work...what makes them tick by day to day. I like to see how they budget, how they plan, how they tackle the everyday things like laundry, schooling, meals, etc. They give me ideas in many areas of my own life. I look at them as a chance to glean some good things....but many people don't see that, or anything like it at all. They see what they don't have, or what they can't do, in their own lives. They may see a family size they are unable to have, either by choice or by design. They may see a family living on a budget and actually enjoying their lives, where they may feel somehow restricted by a budget and unhappy. It's all in how you choose to look at something...or someone. I could probably find things to tear down with the Duggar's and other large families, but that isn't going to change my day to day life any more than praising them up and down for being strong in their convictions will. It's just a personal choice. |
Thoughts
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Shared by Anna
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