A Chance to Impact the World
I was talking to a lady, (no names disclosed) recently, and she was not so tactfully “appalled” that we were expecting our seventh baby. So she began the barrage of comments/questions, which, in any other sphere of conversation would be deemed a bit too personal for inquiry. “I don’t know how you’ll send them all to college.” (and who said college was the only avenue to an education and respectable job?)…”how do you pay attention to that many children?” (Considering I am WITH my children all day, it’s much easier to divide attention among them than a mom who has 2 or 3 paltry hours at the end of her haggard day to try to divide among two.) Finally, she just shook her head and said something about “I don’t know how you do it”. (Which I always find odd, because when I tried to hold down a teaching career AND take care of only two children, I was completely overwhelmed, exhausted physically and mentally, and felt like I was living in someone else’s prison. I work hard now, but my life is so much more peaceful than before! I always feel like asking, “no, how do YOU do it?!)
I decided to stab in the dark, so I asked this lady, how many children did your parents have? “They had five”, she replied. (And I’m sure her parents were farmers and only had children to “work the cotton fields”.) “What number were you?” I asked. I was the baby. I smiled. “Aren’t you glad your parents didn’t listen to everyone who might have suggested they limit their children to 1 or 2?” She didn’t respond. But I could tell by the look on her face, that she had honestly never thought about it.
Look around….look back in history. Men and women of all walks of life, of all financial and educational backgrounds, some with even tragic circumstances surrounding their lives, so many people who have invested their lives into this world of ours were fourth-born, fifth-borth, some seventeenth-born! Muscians, scientists, architects, and some just plain ‘ole nice people, have impacted our world that otherwise would have never had the chance to live if birth control had been prevalent or practiced.
One lady from the 1700′s had four consecutive children with severe birth defects. Even though birth control wasn’t commonly practiced, the doctors strongly advised her to try to prevent having any more children. She didn’t listen, and a few years later gave birth to Ludwig Van Beethoven.
The list could go for miles. Every child that is prevented is a man or woman who never got the chance to impact their world.
P.S. Just for fun, Celine Dion, who I think has an incredible voice and I just love to watch her perform, was the fourteenth child!
Related posts:
birth control, large families | Word Warrior | 
February 7, 2007 12:15 pm
WOW! I didn’t know that Celine Dion was number 14!
What can possibly be more challenging, more rewarding than to actually give birth and raise souls for the glory of God?
We live in a very sad, empty culture that longs for more THINGS than they do for more family.
Keep up the good work!
Keep up the good work!
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