It Just Doesn't Matter So Much

Sometimes I have no doubt that others question the sanity of many decisions made for our family. That is perfectly fine with me. I am coming to the final thought more everyday, that the only opinions that matter when I lay my head down to sleep are my Lord's opinion and my husband's opinion. It isn't so much that I don't value the thoughts of others or consider the ideas of the masses, but that being said, I only hang my hat on the peace I find when I know that we have done what we are called to do.
This past week with the support of our surgeon 5 of our 6 sweet darlings had tonsillectomies. Many folks,nay sayers even, chose to be a bit discouraging. We heard everything from "I only did it with one and it was horrible," to "are you sure about this?" We were sure of what we did and am grateful that over the years we have become very practiced at ignoring the masses and listening instead to wisdom of some who know more than us, praying and leaning on the support of equally passionate people who love us. I likened doing the surgeries separately to pulling labor out for 10 weeks and frankly I didn't find much wisdom in that.
We even encountered one nurse who made her opinion known, I was gently reminded that she didn't have to come home with us, to just move on.
Facing opinions head on has become part of who we are as a family. Every time we all pile out of our 12 passenger church bus we have eager eyes, full of question, some who are brave enough to speak and others only speculate.
People offer up opinion long before they know us, depending on what side of the box some sit, we hear varying pre-conceptions.

Many homeschool mommas and papas see us as too liberal, our dresses are too short, our son's hair is too long, our music too loud and our thoughts on discipline too liberal....our reading choices and concert attendance, well they just pray about that.

Lots of former church friends wonder what the heck we are thinking after all we used to be crazy head covering, wheat grinding, marriage firmly failing, crazies....what can I say? I say "Blessed be the Grace and Hope of Jesus!"

My more liberal friends believe me to be a bit loo loo, as I pack up my children to head out to our local Church Of Christ a few times a week, where we worship out of the box clapping and raising hands, wondering why we send our babies to Belize, Atlanta, and Downtown Memphis and call our home the biggest mission field of all.

You of course can see the dilemma here.....all circles that we love and adore hold different opinions and for that matter different check list for life. We can't keep everyone happy and the fact that we look different and live differently by choice with a large homeschooling, slightly conservative, rock band listening to, shorts wearing, Church of Christ attending, passenger van driving, neurologically challenged, sometimes learning disabled, one income, pro-family, tolerant, loud, sometimes argumentative family....that I was once a head covering, wheat grinding, short lived vegan non-cooking, raw eating, critical spirit, check list having wife and mother makes keeping everyone happy even more difficult. My story today is I don't so much care. I wanna leave everyone we are near with some sort of peace about themselves, looking to the one who I desperately want to shine in me, the Lord...but what others think of how we are doing school, marriage, music, clothes, church, tonsillectomies, autism, TV, or ministry is only up to them. We will dance and sing, pray and play, laugh and sometimes yell loudly, pray for forgiveness as needed every minute and be quick to love others. As for me and my house we will look to the Lord for approval.





These are my original thoughts posted with all sorts of funnies, hurts, happiesat www.himhimthem.blogspot.com please honor that they are owned by myself (Suzanne Pike) and don't share them without attributing where they are found and who they came from in the material you share.