Financially Providing for a Full House of Blessings

Besides having an unbiblical understanding of children, many of the reasons Christians don't have more kids is due to fear.

• Fear that our bodies will fall apart
• Fear of rabbithood
• Fear of other's opinions
• Fear of overpopulation
• Fear that our hearts do not contain enough love to give to so many
• Fear that God won't give us a physically perfect child
• Fear that the days do not contain enough hours to give each one enough attention
• Financial fears (which is what I'm harping on today so click the x now if you don't want to read.)

 Fear of Beggary

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. Psalm 37:25

It's interesting to me that we are the richest people in history and yet we're the most fearful about the cost of children.  Maybe it's because we don't realize just how wealthy we are are.  Or maybe it's because the media has told us for years it takes a gazillion dollars to raise a child to adulthood.  Maybe it's because we don't recognize the investment that children are and that one day they will be the ones caring for our wrinkly old bodies with their own time, money and affection. 

But I think mostly it's because we don't consider the difference in needs and wants.  All a child needs is love, a roof over his head, food and clothing.

Does Junior really need his own room?
That fancy Montessori preschool?
Private ice skating lessons?
His own ipad?

No.

But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content 1 Tim. 6:8

In fact, when people refer to the cost of children they are referring to the cost of entertaining them because we are an entertainment addicted society.  Our entire lives revolve around what entertainment lies around the corner.

Friends, families can survive on peanut butter just as well as they can steak.  Ask me how I know.  Hand-me-down or thrift store clothing is not the worst of social scandals.  It's all our family wears and I dare say there are people who look more dorky than we do who shop at the department stores.

No Seriously.  We're Broke.

No one can argue that is does cost to provide food, clothing and shelter for a large family.  And in an economy where so many men are unemployed or underemployed, and the grocery costs keep climbing, it can leave us, well, anxious.  (I'm shoulder to shoulder with you. It's one of the reasons this blog exists as well as why I'm always pestering everyone about flexi-clips.)

What in the world?  How did that get in there?

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matt. 6:25, 26

We should never be anxious, but instead we should strive to be courageous women who do the bold thing--trust God when it's hard.

Our family has gone through financial trials.  Ones that I look back on and shudder.  But never once have we lacked a roof, food or clothing.  Not once. God has always provided for our needs... many times in ways we would never have imagined.

I wrote a series of posts once about the expense of children that contains more practical ideas for making the ends meet while receiving God's wonderful gift of children.  Start here:  The Expense of Children.

And that is going to conclude this little series on birth control.  Whew.  I tossed around the idea of continuing with issues like spending enough time with the children, and mothering them all well.  But then I realized that that is the overarching purpose of this entire blog.  My passion is family discipleship and that's what I've been blogging about for the last two years.  So go therefore and read archives.

Now I can get back to that booklist.