God has an amazing plan. He has this thing called family which is such a unique institution. So what does God have to say about his design for having children?
Genesis 1:27-28 (Filling the Earth)
God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 9:1,7 (Filling the Earth)
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
As for you, be fruitful and multiply;
Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it."
So clearly, there's something about multiplying and filling the earth that God wants us to know about. God created this earth for us to enjoy and worship Him in.
As we know though, not everybody is called to have children, and as we see in the New Testament, some people are called to be single and that is an amazing calling. Some people are unable to have children, but there are some that are parents to children. Whether a parent or not, it is important we realize the importance of children in our world and help raise not just our own children but those around us- to help them realize that they are loved by the creator of the earth and one day he will call them back Home to spend eternity with Him if they have chosen Him as their personal Saviour.
"Sadly, most of us end up having kids for equally superficial reasons. Some single young women tell crisis Center counsellor s that they wanted to get pregnant to create someone who would love them. Some men think it's important to carry on the family name. Other couples have children because little babies seem so cute. Still others get lost on a narcissist's binge to create another human being who looks just like the two of them combined. A few may even think that having a baby will save a lonely marriage.
I have to confess that I felt eager to have kids, in part because I longed to experience a close father-son relationship as well as an intimate father-daughter relationship. I wanted to be a hero to my kids, as my dad was a hero to me. I had a sense that these children would validate me as a man. Yet these motivations, as noble as they sound, are still narcissistic at root, based on an idealized notion of children and a romanticized view of what family life is really like"
Gary Thomas- Sacred Parenting
Job 1:18-22 (Children are the Lord's)
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and you daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young poor and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said,
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
Often, we forget who our children belong to. They are gifts from God- ultimately they belong to God. We are chosen to help raise them in a Godly home, but they are his to give and take away and Job knew that as this passage shows.
2 Corinthians 12:14-15 (Stewardship of our Parenting)
Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to youl for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their childre. I will most gladly spend and be expended for your soulds. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
Even as a new parent myself, I am realizing the point of this verse very quickly. Parenting is not about posession- it's about sacrifice. We sacrifice for our children all the time. I find I am unable to do many of the things I did before, but it's all worth it with hopes that our daughter will grow up and become a lovely servant-hearted child of God.
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