Brats or Blessings?

I wanted to pop in from my blogging absence to share my experience at the hair salon today. I got a pretty good cut, but the color turned out much too light--but that's not what I wanted to talk about.

The theme of my otherwise glorious 2.5 hour sit in the salon chair seemed to be "kids are unwanted brats". Everything around me seemed to shout of the world's negative attitude toward children. First, my stylist's friend stopped by for a chat along with her adorable little girl who I would guess was 2-years-old. The little girl was beautiful and did nothing the whole time but sit angelically in her stroller eating a Christmas cookie. Her mother tried hard not to pay a bit of attention to her--she was busy. And every time the little girl made an attempt to talk to her mother with things such as "I'm done, Mommy" while trying to hand her her napkin, mommy would scowl and start talking about what a brat she was and how she wanted to leave her with her daddy, but daddy wouldn't watch her. Anytime anyone walking by would even acknowledge the little girl, the mother would roll her eyes. "Shhhhhew! She is such a BRAT. I'm giving her away--do you want her? Take her!" Yes, I know she was joking about that, but she didn't sound like she was. I was so sad for the little girl to have to sit and listen to her mommy say nothing but bad things about her constantly. And I wouldn't doubt that after hearing it long enough, she will start believing it and start living up to that wonderful name her mother calls her. BRAT.

After a while of listening to her go on about how horrible her child was, the girl doing my hair snickered and whispered to me "She only has one." Hearing her, the girl said to me, "Oh, you have one too?" I smiled as I lifted up the cape to reveal my very large belly and said, "I'm about to have my sixth." Her response was probably the most shocked I have ever seen. She stared at me in stunned silence before stuttering, "You have to be crazy!" I think she was feeling pretty stupid after her anti-child rant in my presence since she was probably then realizing I didn't share her opinions. She kept stuttering. "Why? How? Wow. You must be.... Wow." The only thing I said to her was, "If you will think of them as blessings, they will become a blessing to you." Then after telling me I must have great patience (ha! I always get a kick out of that one!) and that she really looked up to me (sure!), she left.

And if that exchange didn't sadden me enough, I came across a terrible ad in a People magazine as I was waiting for my hair to get done. It was an ad for birth control, and they usually bother me enough, but this ad was the worst I have ever seen. The picture was of a cute curly-top little baby girl with spaghetti sauce on her face. At first glance, you'd think the ad was for baby food or maybe for a camera to catch such cute shots. But no. This child, the child herself, was the ad for birth control, with the caption "Because you're wiped out." I cannot tell you how this grieves my spirit! What has this world come to? This world that says children are brats and burdens and annoying inconveniences that no person in their right mind would WANT--much less want more than 2 or 3 of! This world that prevents and kills more children than it welcomes. This world that tries to get away from its children every chance it can get. This world that rarely has a positive word to say about their sweet babies. My heart is crying as I look around at all my beautiful precious little ones as they sleep and the thought of being without a single one is more than I can bear.

The world says, "Kids are brats".
God says, "Children are blessings...rewards...happiness is a quiver full of them!"

Today after looking at that beautiful little girl hearing over and over that she was a brat, that she was in the way, that she wasn't anything good, I have made a new resolution. I want to look at each of my children every day and tell them, "You are a blessing to me."