HOW
MANY IS TOO MANY CHILDREN?
In the news recently there has been a lot of
discussion about the Duggar and Bates families.
These are the folks who seem to be running a relay race to have the most
children in their family. I’m sure
they are not, but to the world, who really does not like children, much less
“people in general,” having more than
two “kids” is a disgrace.
Recently, I went to an
internet news site, which contained a photo and information about the Duggar
family. It was a wonderful family
photo showing 19 children beaming with joy, sitting with their parents on a
staircase. However, under this was a
long, nasty, distasteful list of comments about this family’s audacity to continue
having more children. I would say
out of 100% of the remarks, 90% ranked evil.
Here are some of the
comments:
Feb 10, 2010 @
11:07 am
Anonymous said:
I'm sad for them.
Jun 1, 2010 @
12:05 pm
Anonymous said:
you know the
If this was another family you know
a realy family how much you want to bet the state would have jump in and said
Hell No U are not ! and the doc would have said ARE U CRYZ AT YOUR AGE
Jun 1, 2010 @
11:59 am
Anonymous said:
Yes really they do need to stop
having children. What a bunch of money hogs they are. Everyone can see that they
got the tv show because of the kids to make money off them. I love to take that
stupid smile off their face and beat the crape out of them. Put the kids up with
DSS and find them a real family and the point of the meaning of it. meaing a
real family who wouldn't use them. Poor kids.
Does that give you any clue
as to how people think these days—about children?
Someone once told me that
the reason there are so many abortions, abortifacients (birth control methods
that cause abortions—IUD, pills, creams, etc), and sterilizations (men and
women) is because people do not love children like Jesus does.
It is true, you know. Most
people don’t want to be bothered with them.
Mark
10:14-16 However, when Yeshua saw it, he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me, don't stop them; for the
If we are open and honest
with ourselves, we can see that children take up our time—the time we want to
use for ourselves. Is that one of
the reasons we send them “off” to school as early as possible?
Do we really care how smart they are, or are we just using these houses
of education for a babysitting service? In
this way, we can play all day in peace and quiet and don’t have to bother
with them. Hmmmm.
I know this is true.
How do I know? I was there
once. It is a long story, but
because of Lou’s and my selfishness and a lack of knowledge of the Lord, we
did STUPID things, really sinful acts. These
disturbing actions haunt us to this day. Yes,
after we repented of our sin, we were forgiven.
Yet, the consequences of this iniquity still go on dor l’dor,
generation to generation.
It wasn’t until Lou and I
had been in the Lord for many years that we heard a message in a seminar about
having children. We were both shaken
to the core. Most folks have no idea
what the Scriptures have to say about having little ones.
They are blind, ignorant and some want to stay that way.
I remember a friend of mine,
a dear young woman, telling me that her congregation was complaining about her
having children. She had two and was
about to have their third. The
congregation humiliated them over and over again.
Her husband was the pastor. These
mean-hearted people actually had the nerve to say they didn’t want to pay him
more money because he wanted more children.
Another friend and his wife
came to visit me one evening. They
were very sad. Apparently the
daughter of a local pastor, a family member of theirs, had been promiscuous and
become pregnant. The pastor told his
daughter she had no other recourse but to go out of town and get an abortion.
My friends were deeply alarmed and didn’t know how to stop the
abortion. The pastor was not going
to change his mind. She, this young
girl, brought up in a “Christian” home was forced to kill her baby.
I know of another young
woman who had, to my knowledge, nine abortions.
She finally married a wealthy man and gave birth to three.
However, she talked her maid into aborting her fifth child.
The woman told her maid that she would be fired if she had another child,
forcing the woman, a foreigner to this country who had a hard time finding a
job, to kill her child. This maid
was a Roman Catholic who believed that abortion was a horrible sin.
I also remember going to a
meeting in another state where a young mother of two teen boys was sitting near
me. She brought up the question
about having more children and told me straight forward that her husband, a
well-known Bible teacher, did not believe in having more than the two.
He was adamant about his decision. She
was sad and heartbroken. However, he
did not realize my stand on this subject. He
obviously didn’t understand that my family and I would go into our prayer
closet for this woman and her desire to have more children.
The day of this meeting our three daughters had planned to sing a song
for the congregation. The tune was
to Psalm 127. My husband and I
confronted the teacher with Scripture. That
night, this Bible teacher went home convicted of his lack of love for children.
His wife conceived a month later.
ADONAI
builds the house, its builders work in vain. Unless ADONAI guards the city, the
guard keeps watch in vain. In
vain do you get up early and put off going to bed, working hard to earn a
living; for he provides for his beloved, even when they sleep.
Children too are a gift from ADONAI; the fruit of the womb is a reward.
The children born when one is young. are like arrows in the hand of
a warrior. How blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them; he
will not have to be embarrassed when contending with foes at the city gate.
Psalms 127:1-5
I could go on and on with
stories that I know about personally, but let’s continue.
I have a question for you—How
many is too many children? Do
you know the correct answer to this? It
is easy.
If you do a phrase search in
a Bible program, you will come up with many of this one particular commandment.
However, you will not find that the command was rescinded.
PHRASE:
Be
fruitful and multiply, fill the earth…
Here are some locations in
Scripture:
Genesis
1:28
God blessed them: God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and
every living creature that crawls on the earth."
Genesis
9:1 God blessed Noach and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful,
multiply and fill the earth.
Genesis
9:7 And you people, be fruitful, multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply
on it."
Genesis
35:11 God further said to him, "I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and
multiply. A nation, indeed a group of nations, will come from you; kings will be
descended from you.
Jeremiah
23:3 "I myself will gather what remains of my flock from all the
countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their homes, and they
will be fruitful and increase their numbers.
Genesis
41:52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to
be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
First, understand that
HaShem wants His people to multiply for many wonderful reasons.
If you don’t understand this, then please go back to Psalm 127 and
think it through. He wants people to
bless, commune with, build as a spiritual and physical
army, to proclaim the Gospel, to teach the Torah, etc etc etc.
Exodus
1:20 Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people continued to
multiply and grow very powerful.
Exodus
1:10 Come, let's use wisdom in dealing with them. Otherwise, they’ll
continue to multiply; and in the event of war they might ally themselves with
our enemies, fight against us and leave the land altogether."
Second, apparently people do
not realize how much easier life would be if they had a lot of children.
And yes, HaShem pays for what He orders—all children are His blessing.
If you are obeying Him, He will not allow you and your children to
starve, go without clothing or other needs.
Think about running a business, farm or home with only a child or two.
Wouldn’t it be much easier to have many sons and daughters to help with
the workload? Obviously, this is not
the only reason, but it is a definite benefit.
I have several friends who
have numerous children. One family
has 13! They are all well, happy,
content and enjoying the fruits of their labor.
They do not all live in fancy houses and drive the latest model
automobile, but they have plenty and are grateful for what they do have.
They are being obedient to the Lord and He is blessing them.
Here is another sad thing
I have been watching for years:
Why does this happen?
Because people, God’s children, do not love
children. They do not know the
Scriptures. They do not realize that
taking childbirth into their own hands is sin.
They do not trust the Lord, their Creator, to do what is best for them.
They do not want God messing in their personal lives.
They don’t want…
My own grandmother told me
once: “I had a girl and then a
boy. Two children.
That is good enough.” She
grew up during the time when Margaret Sanger (think Planned Parenthood) was
spreading her despicable lies about not having more than two children and using
abortion or abortifacients to stop childbirth.
Sanger went on to influence Adolf Hitler, Marx and many others.
Get the picture?
How can we, as God’s
people, stop this travesty? By
telling people the truth. By being
outspoken. We must not allow these
lies to continue. God is the author
of creation, not us. We must go tell
other women not to fall into this trap. God
does not bless a barren womb. God
brings barrenness in all areas of the lives of people who do this.
Do not be deceived. God is
not mocked. Whatever we sow,
we will reap.
Be obedient. You will be
blessed!
Blessed
is every one who fears the LORD; who walks in His ways.
For you shall eat the labor of your hands: happy shall you be, and it
shall be well with you. Your wife
shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of your house: your children like olive
plants round about your table. Behold,
that shall the man be blessed that fears the LORD.
The LORD shall bless you out of
"If
you listen closely to what ADONAI your God says, observing and obeying all his
mitzvot which I am giving you today, ADONAI your God will raise you high above
all the nations on earth; and all the following blessings will be yours in
abundance - if you will do what ADONAI your God says: "A blessing on you in
the city, and a blessing on you in the countryside.
"A blessing on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land and
the fruit of your livestock - the young of your cattle and flocks.
(Deuteronomy 28:1-4)
Kathie Palladino
www.kitchen2.com
January 2012