Genesis 1:27-28 (NASB) “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Be fruitful and multiply
Today's society says the average family is 2.5 kids. Where that half kid is, we'll never know. While I was in college I didn't really think about kids much. I liked kids, I've always been the "cool" fun babysitter who'd make crafts and stuff but they just seemed like a lot of work. Then, I never wanted to be one of those women who gained a bunch of weight and I couldn't stand the idea of what a pregnancy would do to my body. My mom said I shouldn't worry about it as she always knew that things would go back to normal if you do things God's way- and for her they did, both times. :) Ha- breast feeding actually puts your body back in shape and helps you lose baby weight gain- as does playing and parks and all kinds of mommy stuff. But also, I didn't think I could ever love my own children like my mom loved us. She was always so caring and giving and told us what a blessing we were. The public school system has a way of making us all feel like we are the center of the universe and in today's society kids are turned into these selfish little monsters and they really can't think about anyone but themselves.
But something happened to me. I can't tell you when or how. Along with my dream of being an awesome housewife and living on a farm, I began to see that God's will for a husband and wife IS to be fruitful and multiply and that if I was walking in faith HE would provide- HE would
"open and close the womb." I'm 32 now but if I had gotten married at 19 or 20 like a lot of good little farm wives back in the day- then having 10 or 12 kids would have been awesome- I knew that God's will was for houses and homes to be filled with laughter and joy and that an extra person is a BLESSING, not just an extra mouth to feed or a someone to worry about how to put through college. In my heart, read the scripture I see like in Dueteronomy 28, if my future spouse and I truly dedicated our lives, daily to Him then:
1IF YOU will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God.
3Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field.
4Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.
5Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.
6Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
9The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.
10And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name [and in the presence of] the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
11And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
12The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
13And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day and are watchful to do them.
14And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Wow! I LOVE this scripture! :) Yes, I believe in planning and saving for the future- and you should definitely count the cost before embarking on anything. But the Lord wants to bless us in soo many ways!!! Not just spiritually, not just financially, but a union between a husband and wife will bring forth fruit too, and that is not a bad thing or a burden... but a gift :)
Sooo, if God wanted to bless my eventual union... ha...what's up with this "pill thing" that everyone is taking now?
I've always believed that abortion was wrong, but what about contraceptives? What about the almighty "pill"? So I began to do research. What I found about the pill is that in some cases it actually can cause an abortion- kill a fertilized egg because what it does is it makes the lining of the uterus really thin so the egg can't be implanted- fertilized egg- now gone...dead... I couldn't bear the thought, it's just wrong to think that even if there's a possibility of killing a child. Then there's the fact that some women have actually died due to blood clots being thrown to the brain- and many women get sick- some of my friends can't take it at all or it could kill them. I went on to research exactly when birth control started being used and what has happened to society since it's wide spread implementation. First off, the more I read about Planned Parenthood and Margret Sanger I just wanted to be SICK! Here was this woman who basically went about to try to exterminate people she thought were less than human- and birth control was her weapon. She had a whole campaign to get black people sterilized or to take birth control so less of them would be born. Yikes! Then, I looked toward the 70's and I heard Loretta Lynn say that the pill evened the playing field so that now women could sleep around just like men.
I look at what has happened now that the pill is around (the "fruit", if you will)- people are sleeping around right and left. lol- listen I know one of the reasons I haven't had sex in some crazy spur of the moment idea is that I could never, in my right mind, bring a child into this world without a loving mom AND dad. lol Without the fear of pregnancy people can have affairs, teenagers are encouraged to "experiment" with their bodies... it's just a downward slope... It's also the one "medicine" that actually HARMS a HEALTHY female body- a medicine that makes something that is perfectly healthy and breaks it down, "damages" the uterus so that it's not healthy anymore but sick- it's supposed to be reversible and temporary but a lot of women come off the pill and have a miscarriage or can't get pregnant at all, if you are putting something in your body telling it to "kill" and "be sick"- physically, hormonally, changing the God given dynamic of a women's reproductive system- it's possible that your body will not jump back from that- and again- even off of the pill- a life could be taken because it does take a minute for that uterine wall to get thick again... "oh well, we'll get em next time?" really? that one miscarriage could have been the next Einstein...
On the flip side, we don't live in a really great society right now. Life is not simple and peaceful and I've had a lot of friends say "this world is so crazy, I could never bring a child into it." And actually, I agree, to a point- I think that's one of the reasons I haven't gotten married, yet- I don't believe in birth control and in order to raise children today so that they're not slimed with all the dirt and craziness around them- ie Viagra commercials on prime time TV (dad...what's an erection? I've heard an 8 yr old say...) come on? Kids are exposed to too much-
When God brings two people together, he should be the one to bring children into this world and "open and close the womb" as he saw fit.. I mean, Sarah and Abraham couldn't even have children and they prayed and prayed-and finally God brought them Issac- as a major blessing. If Sarah had been on birth control- heck, if any in the genealogy of Jesus had been on birth control (of any kind ;)... where would we be now? :)
What does the Bible say? :)
First off, why did God ordain marriage? What is this union for? :)
Malachi 2
14Yet you ask, Why does He reject it? Because the Lord was witness [to the covenant made at your marriage] between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously and to whom you were faithless. Yet she is your companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your marriage vows].
15And did not God make [you and your wife] one [flesh]? Did not One make you and preserve your spirit alive? And why [did God make you two] one? Because He sought a godly offspring [from your union]. Therefore take heed to yourselves, and let no one deal treacherously and be faithless to the wife of his youth.
No, it doesn't say how many godly offsprings here, but as we read on in scripture, we don't EVER see a case when it is right for man or woman to take on the position of God and choose when it is time for someone to come into this world.. What if little Mary had been on birth control... and the "fullness of (God's) time had come? Sure, I'm sure God could have worked around that if you will, but that's not the point...lol :)
All through the Bible we see verses about God "forming us in the womb" :)
Psalm 127:3-5: “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 on one’s youth.How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”
Do you know much about John Wesley? In Bible College he became one of my heroes. He came from a huge, super duper godly family and his mother was one of the most AMAZING Proverbs 31 women EVER! We also learned about him and his family when we were home schooled because they had their own da gum school! :) Suzannah Wesley had 19 children... (just blows my mind...lol) By today's standards of 2.5 kids, that's like 16.5 too many :) But God had a plan- John Wesley was number 15 and he founded the Methodist movement and won thousands of souls for Christ. Wesley was also an outspoken abolitionist, friends with John Newton and William Wilberforce. His brother Charles (18th or 19th child ?) worked with him and he wrote 1,000s of hymn, songs that we all sing, (alas I cannot tell you any off the top of my head but Hark the Herald Angels Sing...) Their mom raised them all to serve God. At one point she said to her husband "With our servants and children, we must have family altar with Bible study and teaching. And if you don't do it, I will." :) (He was a minister himself) So when he didn't, she did.
Abraham, Issac, and Jacob... those men were MEN OF GOD, who did not use any form of birth control- in fact, the opposite is ALWAYS true in the Gospel.
1. Gen 28-30 Jacob, Leah, Rachel love triangle... (yeah, mom, really, name me after the girl the guy didn't want?:) Jacob was deceived and he was tricked into marrying and sleeping with Leah first,then he had to work 7 more yrs for Rachel..
