Children: The World Says Burden, God Says Blessing
Our culture is backwards in so many ways. Well, not backwards... it is actually in direct opposition to the way God made it to be. This is especially true when we look at the family.
A few weeks ago I happened to be reading Psalm 127, and a few verses (that mean a lot to me and my husband!) really stood out to me on this particular day:
"Behold, children are a gift of 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.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate." (Psalm 127:3-5)
All we hear in American culture is how much of a burden children are. We constantly hear about moms having "me time" and most parents can't wait for the summers to end so they can send their kids back to school and get them out of their hair!
There is a lot of people nowadays who don't want to have children because of the sacrifice they'll have to make to raise them. I'll be blunt here and say that it all boils down to selfishness. Our society thrives on "self love" so of course people wouldn't want to have kids that take all of their time and attention and leave them with no time to do the things they want to do.
But what does God's Word say about children?
It literally says that children are a gift!
Not only that, in the same verse it says that children are a reward.
Let's look more closely at verse 5:
"How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate."
God has clearly said to us here that the person who has many children will be blessed! That is so opposite of what our society tells us. Then He tells us that the person who has many children will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemy. Why? Because it is an honor to have children.
But if we see parents out in town with more than 2 children, we scoff. We stop and stare. We wonder "Don't they know how to prevent that?" But the Lord has clearly told us how He sees children, and we need to heed His view of offspring much more than we need to listen to society's view around us.
God doesn't view children as a burden, but instead as a blessing.
God has commanded that we be fruitful and multiply. While this isn't true for every person in the world (we know that all people are not called to be married or to bear children) this is true for the majority. And we as believers have the responsibility (and privilege!) to bear children and raise a godly seed.
So let's make sure our view of bearing children isn't tainted by the negative worldview around us. Let's make sure we see children (no matter if someone has 2 or 10!) as a gift and reward from the Lord.