Large Families are a Blessing

It still happens. I still get negative comments about how many kids I have. I still get those raised eyebrows when people hear that I have seven sons. Some just say, “I don’t know how you do it.” But some comments are much more hurtful.

In the early days, when I was still having children, I would get the question “are you still trying for a girl?” I was never trying for anything but a healthy baby. Actually, I wasn’t really trying for anything at all, just welcoming each little boy as God sent him.  And God was so good to us with the arrival of each son. Some came with complications but nothing we couldn’t handle with the Lord’s help. My oldest turned thirty this year and with each passing year, I can tell you that having a large family is still a blessing. And now with grandchildren arriving and the family growing, I can see that our lives will be rich until the end.

Why do some people have so much trouble with large families? Is it that they have bought into the “overpopulation” propaganda? Or is it that they are too self-centered to imagine sharing so much of themselves with someone else?  Those could be likely answers.

But I found this article about the connection between the anti-large family position and the pro-abortion message that made me see a new side to this issue. The article talks about how, as a society, we’ve come to believe that it is a responsibility to limit our family size and not just a personal choice. We’ve been taught to believe that it’s irresponsible to have more than two children. This thinking has only become popular in the last fifty years or so. Strangely, about the same time as the free-thinking 60’s began which paved the road to Roe vs. Wade.  Our parent’s and grandparent’s generations didn’t have an opinion about how many kids a family had unless those kids weren’t being taken care of properly.

There is also something else to consider. In previous generations, there was an understanding that in order for a family to prosper or sometimes even survive, there had to be children. Families depended on their offspring to help with the family farm or business. And the parents also looked to their grown children to help take care of them when they became old and unable to care for themselves.  Now, people are all about self-sufficiency. We don’t need anyone, we can manage all by ourselves.  This doesn’t just affect individual families, it affects our entire society. This article talks about how as the birth rate continues to drop there is concern that there won’t be enough people contributing to the economy to support our country. And it’s not just our country, it’s happening worldwide.  I don’t think that is the way God intended it to be. He said for us to be fruitful and multiply for good reason.

Things have definitely changed as our society has become more about the individual an less about community. But those of us who have experienced the joys of a large family know that there is nothing like a crowd of people to love all at the same time! And we likely won’t be alone in our old age!