Home Spun Wisdom?
Home Spun Wisdom?
"I know that if God wants us to have children, we will have children no matter what we do." So says the Christian that uses birth control. What do these people mean? Perhaps they mean that they do not believe God opens and closes the womb and that they are able to stop Him from giving them a child but they want to sound spiritual in their compromise. Or, they really believe that God can give them a baby at anytime, they just enjoy wasting money on birth control pills and devices.
What does it mean when a person tells you that they are pro-life and yet they use all means available to them to not have children, put off having children, or limiting the number of children they have? Something is being spun here. Isn't this just another version of Pro-Choice? After all, they are making choices, aren't they? Perhaps they should change their label, in the ongoing war on abortion, from Pro-Life to Anti-Murder. Of course, before they do that, they should investigate what some of those pills they are taking to stop pregnancy do. Their new slogan might be as self-refuting as the old one is self-delusional. If so, what are we as Christians left with?
How about, Pro-Children? Of course this will not fly with the encultured Christians, as they view the bearing and raising of children with the same distaste as the pagan, Pro-Choice opposition. Besides, it would leave them open to the ridicule of the world, what with marching and rallying under the banner, Pro-Children and actually having no children, or just a token few.
We are asked quite often, "Should wives just stay home and have all the babies they can?" And we answer, "The Bible says that children are a blessing from the Lord." And we believe that they are and have experienced that blessing, (now don't miss this), over and over again. God's directions to Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and multiply. Nowhere in Scripture did He repeal this. Nor did God ever hint that this command was only pre-Industrial Revolution, that at the advent of the cotton gin and the tractor, large families would no longer be needed. So, why is it that the majority of God's people do what they can to limit the number of children they have or in some cases, to have no children at all? What could possibly drive them to turn up their noses at gifts from God?
Is it a lack of freedom, the desire to be able to travel, or entertain, or whatever without having to bring children along or be responsible for them or finding yourself in the encumbered position of not being able to go out? With children, you discover that the home is ever more precious than you ever imagined. You don't want to leave your children. You want them with you whenever possible. The best times, for the unselfish, is being together.
Is it perceived as too much of a drain on your finances, that you simply cannot afford to bear children and raise them? Might I ask, who is in charge of your income? I am still poor as a church mouse, yet God continues to supply all our needs-and then some. Would God leave the righteous out begging bread? If His children ask for bread, will He give them a stone?
Do you feel that you are not ready to have children? That you want to wait awhile? Does this mean that you would rather put off receiving a blessing from God? Would God gift you with that for which you are not ready? Who knows you and your circumstance better than He? And who has the wisdom to know what you need, and the ability to see into the future? Besides, you never are ready. (Even after Lamaze Class.) Are you a newly wedded couple who, "just want to get to know each other first"? Are you married, or just taking the relationship around the block for a test drive? Listen, you will never fully know the person you married until you have to "lay down your life for another" at three-o'clock in the morning.
Are you and your wife concerned what effect child bearing will have on her body? Is this not vain and against the natural use of the woman's body, i.e. to bear children? Isn't this a sign of those who worship themselves? Have you been listening to the world's spin on beauty?
Why not get in on the blessing of having children or having more children? I am the richest man on earth! Oh man! The beauty of seeing the older taking care of the younger... The first steps of a baby to toddler... The first time you hear mama or dada... The wonder on their faces as you read a book to them or tell them a story... The pleasure you derive from taking them to a park or on a hike or pushing them on a swing... the sound of their little voices as they sing hymns or nursery rhymes... The tradition of a family sitting together at mealtime... The preciousness of tucking little ones in bed... The joy in knowing that you are about the business of building the kingdom.
Abortion on demand will never stop until Christians begin to value having children. The world hates children, and sees them as an inconvenience because this is how we see them. God will judge the abortionists, the parents who choose to kill their unborn, and all those who support this genocide. But because judgment begins in the house of the Lord, I believe God will continue to send leanness into the soul of the church until we begin once again to raise up a godly generation. We need to take God at His word. He doesn't spin, for there is no shadow of turning in Him. When He says that something is good, it is good.
"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them"
(Psalm 127:3-5)