As I said in my earlier post, I attended a game a week ago Sunday night with eleven individuals with “xy” in their genes. I laughed under my breath as I saw a few people gawking at us. I told David, “they probably think we’re some kind of weird polygamist group where the women take multiple husbands and bear children impossibly close together.”

For the record, I was there with David and Nathan (ages withheld), Elijah (10), Peter (6), Cameron (6), Ben (5), Alex (5), Noah (5), Andrew (3), Jonathan (22 months), and Joshua (21 months).

Not long ago, we were in the van going…somewhere…I can’t remember…and David or Tom…I can’t remember which…asked me how music practice had gone (I sing with our church’s music team sometimes). I replied, “It was good, just me and the boys: Gary, Albert, Rick, Andy and Fred.” Slight pause. “But I guess that’s how my life always is….” It was how my life was at that moment, and it’s how my life is most days.

There’s a story in my family lore that goes something like this: Kelly is in preschool and is friends with Jeffrey Greene. Jeffrey Greene ticks off Kelly by beating her in a front-yard game of whiffleball. Kelly demonstrates her displeasure by whacking Jeffrey Greene upside the head with the whiffleball bat.

I also vividly remember smacking Sam Fairweather over the head with the biggest wooden block in my room. I think that was a result of a much nobler cause; he wasn’t sharing with his sister or something like that.

My mother was told by a elementary schoolteacher that I was a very well-rounded child on the playground; I played hopscotch with the girls and football with the boys.

I suppose all these experiences, looking back on them now, should have indicated that I was going to be the mother of boys, or the mother of some pretty fierce girls. God prepared me well for the noise and rough-and-tumbleness of the guys here at home.

“My Fair Lady” has always been a favorite musical of mine, first when I was growing up and now as an adult. In Henry Higgins’ first anthem “An Ordinary Man” Higgins expounds upon all the horrible things that happen when men “let a woman in” their lives, and therefore why he is “a confirmed old bachelor and likely to remain so.” Later on, when the woman in his life, his student, Eliza Dolittle, leaves him and he is too proud to say he misses her, he berates the entire gender by wondering, “Why Can’t a Woman be More Like a Man?”.

There have been a few times when I have wished the opposite…why can’t a man be more like a woman…it’s usually when I see my friends’ little girls sit down and quietly amuse themselves with a tea set and some dolls. But for the most part I am grateful for the differences between the genders.

In marriage…I am grateful for my husband’s leadership in our family. I am thankful that he has me as his helper. When I step back to consider our marriage, it seems obvious that we should be where we are. On days when I am walking in God’s grace for my obedience, I am glad to help David. He is a man worthy of help and esteem.

In the church…When a church is feminized, we hear more women’s voices than men’s. We hear emotional appeals instead of bold truth proclaimed from Scripture. This is always disappointing to the women in the end. They are no longer protected and loved the way that Christ loved the Church, washing her with the water of the Word (Eph.5).

“If you don’t take strong stands, you will feminize the church. But the sad part is, you’ll feminize the men and you’ll disappoint the women.” — John MacArthur

Much Ado About Nothing contains a great scene that discusses roles of men and women. If you want to know why I love Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, look here. It’s Shakespeare at its sweetest. Turn it off when you get to Keanu Reeves, though, because it will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth :-)