As I swooned with dizziness and nausea from my sixth pregnancy, my 6-year old son, in his childish excitement, asked, “Mommy, can you have twins? Because I can’t decide if I want a girl or a boy, so I just want both.” Able to manage a chuckle, I secretly thought, “What would I do with twins?” With five children between the ages of 11 and 10 months, I was in ready agreement with the statement I most often hear…“Boy, you’ve got your hands full!” And yet amid the nausea and overwhelming thoughts of even the slightest possibility of twins, the Lord gave me such a sweet revelation.
The Christian community is so wrapped up in “evangelizing” the nations. Tracts, revivals, youth missions, foreign missions, visitation teams, the list keeps going of all the tactics we are using to reach a nation for Christ. And I do not dare submit that any of those tactics are wrong or useless. However, I think they have become a hindrance to the primary method God intended to disciple the nations. We have completely missed the simplest, the most natural of all methods—raising godly children.
Ironically, we fell hook, line and sinker for Satan’s ploy: “children are a hindrance.” He convinced us, very subtly, that we can’t effectively minister, or effectively “evangelize” through a career if we have a house full of children. Ironic, indeed, for children are God’s primary tool for evangelism!
If we only understood that children aren’t given to us just to fulfill some need we have, or to simply make us happy or even just to replace ourselves. God gives us what He calls “His heritage.” They are for His purpose in His Kingdom.
Back to God’s evangelical design….as I contemplated twins, I was prompted to think about the ability of one couple to raise up a godly generation. So I did some math. The following is the astonishing conclusion I found:
If one couple has two children, and all of the following children have two children, in five generations, there will be 32 children.
If one couple has eight children, and all of the following children have eight children, in five generations, there will be 7,776 children! (Obviously God sometimes closes the womb of a Christian woman. However, through her spiritual children or adoption, she can equally glory in the mathematics of God’s economy.)
Provided that the couples have raised their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that is more evangelizing than any church is capable of! That is 7,776 voters for President, laws, etc. That is 7,776 children parenting yet another generation where the numbers become astronomical. That is 7,776 children who are growing up to be godly leaders of this nation, to make up the moral fabric of society, to be America. And as a reminder, that is just one family!!!
So as I contemplated God’s design, fully confident in our conviction to allow the Lord to control our family size, I smiled at the thought of twins. In fact, I whispered a quiet prayer…”Lord, give me more children, more soldiers for Christ, and may I be faithful to turn their hearts toward You!”
11 comments
I hope that our influence as Christian parents will be effective in that way. That would be wonderful! There are many non-Christians who also have large families. I know God does not need numbers, because He has worked alone, but we have to do our part. If God wants us to have a lot of children for Him, and we do, then they probably will be blessed and will be blessings to many others as well.
Recently I read that dogs now outnumber children in the city of San Francisco.
Ironically, evolutionists may be the victims of their own theories: survival of the fittest may mean they themselves are dying off b/c of their low birth rate.
Sad statistic, although I am not surprised. With the rate of abortion, gay marriages and the anti-child philosophies, I would expect a frighteningly depleted population in the near future…(unless we “quiver-fullers” keep GROWING…no pun intented 🙂
it’s funny how I never thought CHOOSING to let God give me more children would be revolutionary. i guess i am a rebel, afterall! 🙂
btw, i haven’t taken my BC pills in 2 weeks. EEEEEEK! my husband is fully on board and excited. i am scared out of my mind!
Elizabeth,
I am really blown away by what God is doing in the hearts of you and your husband. What a powerful thing! We can all relate to your being scared; but as you give God control, the fear will dissipate.
It’s a beautiful thing when God gets a hold of the heart of a rebel (I can relate 🙂 Rebellion is needed in the body of Christ. It is a good thing to rebel against the thinking of our culture sometimes!
Wow! I am excited for Elizabeth and her husband, too!! I am so thrilled that Elizabeth’s husband is excited. Imagine, there may very soon be another one of them (E. and her H.) to share life with them–and I think we can all be joyful that they are so excited! Trusting in God is the best of all, whether or not He chooses to give children…and He usually does give children to those who allow it.
Did you know that there was a small nation of people who had been enslaved by another nation and that they despised their slavery so much that they all vowed never to have children so that their children would not also be slaves? What sadly happened, is that their nation died out after their own generation. Their plan worked. It would have been better to have children. This is in a recent edition (2000?)of the Guiness Book of World Records, so I think it must be true. I had checked it out from the library, so I can’t give all the details anymore. I should look it up again and copy it.
I think it shows the lack of faith in evolution when evolutionists try to save “endangered species”. Why not let them “evolve” into something better? Their theory says that many species died out before we got what we have today. Of course, this is all junk science, and a faith in the unobservable and unproven. Macro-evolution has never been observed. All the evidence has always been more favorable to CREATION.
Congratulations, Elizabeth! Don’t be too disappointed if you don’t get pregnant this month, though. It can take four to six months for most couples, and it can take far longer after going off the pill.
And remember that letting God decide just may mean that while He desires your trust in His plan, He may decide that you already have the perfect number of children, or He may lead your family to adopt.
Very true!
[…] Crying Out for More Children? […]
Please pray for me. We already have SEVEN children and I love them so! But my heart is closed to having anymore. I am getting a little too old for all the bending and stooping and we have a smallish house with fragile walls that break every time our little ones are too roudy inside. I have mostly boys but even my girls are spirited. I am just also fearful of the future on top of not knowing where to put another child. I want to glorify God in my home but so many insecurities hinder me.
[…] Check out this great article by Generation Cedar, Crying Out for More Children? […]