Although this not completely applicable to me yet, as I am not married, I’m still super passionate about it…
We always talk about surrendering our lives to God and letting Jesus direct our paths, but somehow we never seem to talk about that in regards to how many children we have. This makes absolutely NO sense!! Why aren’t we looking to God, and opening ourselves to having however many children he will give us? We’re talking about what life enters into the world; this is a HUGE deal!!!! This is not something we should be taking into our own hands!!
Yes…children are expensive and it’s is a huge sacrifice to have them. I’s painful, a lot of work… and a lot more stuff! But, Isn’t that what our life as followers of Jesus is all about, dying to ourselves and living for our Lord and Savior? God will give us the strength we need to get through whatever he has in store for our lives. We are called to be servants, not just with our friends or at work, but most importantly at home with our families! If we are unwilling to have kids because it’s too painful, too much work, or too expensive, I think we need to take a step back and look at what is at the root of all our motives. If these are our reasons… then it’s sin. It’s called selfishness, wanting what’s best and most convenient for us. It’s wanting to have things the way we want them rather than what God wants for us.
I have been through so many sermon series about how we should surrender our finances with regard to sacrificially giving to the church knowing that God WILL provide for our needs. This is absolutely true and is a wonderful thing that needs to be preached! However, I honestly don’t think I have ever heard this concept preached in the context of children. Although having children is expensive and is a huge financial sacrifice, we need hold out our money in an open hand to God and be willing to have kids, trusting that God will provide. If God will provide for a building project in a church, how much more will he provide for children!!!
Anyways… bottom line, we need to surrender everything in our life to God, including the amount of kids that He may want us to have. It’s not our place to make that decision ourselves! We have to give up everything, including that, and let Jesus take the reins in our life!
