Why So Many Children?

So why do we have so many children? No, it is not that we absolutely adore babies nor am I in any way the maternal sort. In fact, I never wanted children.  So how did we end up with 7 children in slightly less than 11 years?

There are 2 main reasons :

1. Children are God’s rewards.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from Him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame when they content with their
enemies in the gate.

Ps 127:3 – 5

Children are little blessings that the Lord sends down to us. We almost never say no to being rewarded with a fatter bank account or a bigger house or a bigger car. But how many times have you seen people shrink back in horror (mock or otherwise) when you ask them if they would like to have more children? What does this say about society and its view on children? As someone wrote in our local newspaper some time ago, children are often viewed as a liability, not an asset. I do not deny that the little people are hard work. That is a fact. But the work we do for them and with them has eternal repercussions. Working at the office does not

The Bible clearly say that children are blessings. But many, in today’s world, Christians included, do not see them as such. In fact barreness is celebrated! People try all sorts of ways* to not get pregnant. But when viewed through the eyes of scriptures, barreness is a curse from the Lord! Not something to covet.

2. God is the one who opens & closes wombs

We did not start out being quiverful. (The term “quiverful” is used when families trust in the Lord to plan the number of children they have and even the spacing between them.) Like all intelligent and practical couples  we were going to have the lovely perfect 2-child family. And lo and behold, when we had 1 boy & 1 girl, everybody told us that we can “close shop”.

But as I was pregnant with my 2nd child, I came across an email group that discussed being quiverful. It was a strange and alien concept to me. Afterall, God gave us brains, right? So why should we throw away our brains and let God lead and plan our lives? And remember, I did not particularly like children and have never been one to coo over babies. We definitely did not start out planning to have a large family. Two is more than enough, thank you!

And yet, something about the quiverful philosophy spoke to me and I shared it with dh. Both of us came to the same conclusion. We say we that we trust God, that He is in control and He knows best. We put our lives and souls into His hands and yet here we are trying to control our own fertility. (Do we actually have control over our fertility???)

So what does that say about our faith in Him? If we say that the Bible is right, that children are blessings and rewards from God, then why are we saying NO to more babies?

For me, there was only one reason why I was saying no – selfishness. Having more than 2 babies would inconvenience me even more than what I was dealing with! Children are hard work. Having more babies meant that I would have to postpone many of my dreams. The more children we have thelonger I have to postpone those dreams. And I would so love to be thin again! Like I said, they were selfish reasons

So in an act of faith, we decided to take God at His word and trust Him to plan out the number of children He has for us and even the spacing of the children. It has been an exciting adventure as we were then very quickly blessed with 7 children in 11yrs!

Is it easy? Nope! And let me tell you, it is tiring too. But the faith walk is never easy and we thank God that He knows how weak our faith is and is ever so gracious to meet us at our level. We freely admit that sometimes we worry that we could have 12 children or more at this rate till I hit menopause. Especially on those days when everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. But this line of thought is presumptious and boastful. It may or may not happen.

May this challenge you if you are thinking about having another child but think you are being impractical. Following God does not seem practical. What He calls us to do may not seem wise. But whose standards are we following when we say something is impractical or unwise? God’s? Or the world’s system?

Yes, little people are hard work. Little children that need to be trained drains away your energy. But and I say this to myself all the time when I am feeling down – God has a purpose for each of these little people and He gave them to you and me to raise them up for Him. What an honour to be chosen! What a privilege. And how cute they can be

So that is why we have the number of children we have. Will we have more? I am content to stop here. And I have been content to stop way back when we had 2. But I don’t know what the Lord has in store for us. I can only pray for His strength and wisdom to raise them right.

* I’ve also learnt that almost all chemical and hormonal contraceptives act as an abortifacient. These contraception methods work on 2 levels – a) prevent the egg from being fertilised by the sperm and b) if that fails and fertilisation should occur, make the uterine wall hostile to the embryo so that it is unable to attach itself to the uterine wall. Meaning it causes your body to abort the baby.

 

~~~ Adapted and updated on 30th June 2009. This post was originally published on 9th September 2006 as “Are They All Yours?” ~~~