And Have Babies
By: Conrad Long
This entire article seems like it should go without saying. I understood it at five years old, and assumed throughout my naive youth that it was the general view of all professing Christians. Horrifyingly, it turns out that fertility is not actually that low, and devastating medical problems are not that common. People just don’t want kids.
This is a terrible curse on our society generally, and our families in particular. Children are among the greatest blessings that God gives us in this life, and it has become a shocking and strange thing to even want more than two. Many reject having children altogether.
I remember the awe and wonder with which I beheld the occasional family larger than my own (5 kids). Almost every time, they struck me as particularly blessed and happy. I chalked it up to the inscrutable will of God that He had seen fit to bless these dozen member families so greatly, and left the masses so poor. Little did I know these poor peasants had, by and large, actually chosen to live like this.
They had really good reasons though. “We just don’t think we can afford another right now.” “It’s irresponsible to have kids you can’t properly take care of.” “I’m just not ready for kids yet.” How compelling.
Nobody is starving because of having too many kids. We’re talking about choosing a marginally wealthier lifestyle over each child prevented. Worry, a lack of faith, and shortsighted selfishness are robbing these folks of incredible blessings. In the parable of the hidden treasure, they are the poor saps selling the field. (No, not literally as in giving up eternal life, but just in the general meaning of the parable of losing something priceless for a nominal payoff.)
Once one is married, (some of my other articles address getting to that step, starting with Grow Up and Get Married) he should immediately set about having children with his wife. Offspring fall under the “marital duties” we are not to deprive one another of. (See Onan). This is one of the three essential purposes of marriage, and the fulfillment of the first command God gave to man. To prevent or avoid children is perversion; if you did not want kids, you should not have gotten married. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
