The fruit of the womb....

Children are a blessing. Most Christians will agree that the Bible teaches that children are a blessing...and that they come from God. If that is true, then we should see a welcoming attitude and some fruitful abundance in Christian families....right? Sounds good, but the truth is, it isn't happening. This is just another area where "the church" isn't all that different from the world. As a mother of seven children I can testify to this. I can't count the times that i've had comments regarding the size of my family from people in my church! Sadly, many of the comments are the same ones I get from complete strangers at Walmart. I've heard it all..."Wow....big family", "Don't you know what causes that?", "Are you done yet?", "Better you than me." Am I the ONLY one who sees a problem with this? Am I the ONLY one who thinks church should be the last place we should encounter this attitude towards children?

So this begs the question....Why does the Christian church reject the blessing of children? Sound harsh? Just like the world, Christians seek out other blessings - more money, bigger houses, cars, vacations, etc. But children? "Oh...no thanks. We have enough of those." No one seems to think about the fact that all those other so called blessings not only distract us from eternal things, they will also burn up one day. But children? They are eternal. We can spend eternity with them! When we found out we were expecting our newest bundle (now 5 months old!), my husband sent an email out to family that contained this statement:

"If God were handing out $1000 gas cards everyone of you would be waiting in line to get their's. Well God has given our family another gift which is immeasurably greater than that of any material gift of this world...another child."

Isn't that so true? I saved the email he sent that day because it really touched my heart. It's part of what inspired me to start this blog. I love my children. They are a precious gift that, if truth be told, we certainly don't deserve. But God is so generous and so faithful. If he gives us these rewards, he can be trusted to provide for them.

Please don't think that I condemn those who don't feel the same way. I write about children being a blessing to get Christians thinking.... to challenge them to rethink their position on God controlling the family size. Thoughts???