March 13, 2007

• Well, part of the reason for my testiness with those backhanded complimenters is that I have some bad news for them, especially for the one who had the impertinence to tell me "Now, no more!" Yes, that's right, we're having more, well hopefully only one more at this time. But, God willing, the Hanley family will be welcoming a new member in September, and yes, we're happy about it.

  Now, since those who like to make assumptions about my life also seem to like to make assumptions about my motivations, I'll try and lay out my reasons.

  Basically, God made my body in a certain way, with the ability to bear many children. I figure He did it because He wants me to bear many children. I figure He wants me to bear many children because He wants to create families, churches and nations with many children. He is the author and creator of life and I figure He knows best when and where to create that life. I also know that He wants me to walk by faith and not by sight.

  I can't see how it would be anything but presumptuous for me, healthy and rich and well able to bear another to child to say to God that my wishes and feelings are more important than whatever He has planned for me. I can't say to God that He didn't know what He was doing when he made me with the ability to bear seven children instead of two, that He may have designed the world to work this way, but I know better. I especially can't say that I know who should be born and when and where to create life.

  To me that seems selfish. I am not God and I have no idea how a new baby will affect my life. I need to trust Him and walk by faith. It would be wrong for me to do otherwise.

  There are times, however, when I think God does give people enough information to make the decision to use birth control. Sometimes a mother's health precludes pregnancy and in some situations using birth control to space children might in some cases be permissable. I can probably come up with a gazillion other situations which would qualify in my book. These are cases that aren't a matter of presumption, where a couple isn't saying that they know better than God, but are prayerfully trying to reconcile truly difficult circumstances.

  I also don't think that everyone who uses birth control when they shouldn't is necessarily being selfish. Not that they aren't being sinful, but the Bible talks about those who sin ignorantly and those who sin presumptuously. There are those who never give the whole issue a thought, who go along with what their spouse, church, family and culture promote without any thought to whether or not that's actually what God wants for them. They sin in ignorance, and although I think that their sin has far reaching repercussions for the church and the nation, I don't think that it necessarily has a very detrimental effect on their personal life and their walk with God other than denying them the blessings that more children would have brought into their life.

  There are those people who do feel God's call to have more children and who fight against it. They devise excuses for why their behavior is allowable and they do everything they possibly can to justify it. They are presumptuous and selfish and they need to repent or their sin will have negative personal effects.

  I can't go around figuring out who's in the first set and who's in the second. Heck, I can't even figure out who is using birth control and who is not. God has, in His wisdom, given some families I know only one, two or three children. It's not worth my while to figure out what God wants other people to do on an individual level. All  Christians have sin in our lives and we all are being sanctified in different areas at different times. Having a whole bunch of kids may mean you're submitted in one area, but it doesn't mean you don't have other areas where you're sinning, maybe even more important areas.

  I do think that the Church on the whole needs to repent and to say that one of the reasons our culture is so messed up is that we've been trying to build it out of the wrong things. We need families who are dedicated to allowing God to work in their lives and who will trust Him to endow them with the correct number of children instead of leaning on their own understanding. It's just one of the many steps we need to take to turn back the increasing worldliness in our churches.

  • 10:19 am
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