When To Have Babies?

I am always teasing my kids about when we will see grandbabies after these weddings, and I get the same response from both of them ... "Not any time soon." Understandably, both couples want to have time together alone with one another, get a good start on their careers, perhaps save a little money and have some adventures before children come into the picture. Brad and I had similar thoughts. Well, Brad did. He wanted to wait five years after we married, and I wanted to have children immediately (we'd been dating for four years by that point after all). So we compromised and three years later Ayla was born. It did give us lots of time to be together alone and her arrival into our lives truly was at a perfect time.

We did a little research to see when married couples typically have their first child. The only thing we found is that lots of women are waiting until after they are 30 to have children and, based on statistics, making more money than those who have children in their 20s. What was interesting in our information search, was the other articles we stumbled across in the process. "When Should You Move In Together?" "Half of Babies Born in U.S. Are Born To Unwed Mothers." "Do Married Couples Have to Have Children?" "Baby First. Marriage Later." "First Comes Baby, Then Goes The Marriage." It was a sad sorry list of stories. So we came to the conclusion, that with the way culture is today shifting priorities and God's design for families, we were not going to get accurate or even wise advice hunting on the Internet. So we decided instead to search out the Bible. When does God believe couple should have children?

Well, of course, after marriage. That is clear. He repeatedly shares that "fornication" is a desire of the flesh (Galatians 5:19) and immoral (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 and Matthew 15:19-20), meaning that sex is to be saved for married couples. Scripture goes on to say children are a heritage of the Lord and a reward (Psalm 127:3). He says us to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). There is no hard and fast rule for when children should come after marriage (and in the Bible some had children right away and others had children far later in life), but we know when the Bible was written, there were few preventative measures for not having children. It was pretty much up to God. You can go that route, but understand then children could come nine months after the wedding.

Daddy says he thinks our children came at the perfect time, although he said he would have waited until it was far too late if I hadn't "pushed the envelop." I, on the other hand, still would have liked to have them younger ... and many more. So here is our advice ... which is the same advice we will give you for just about everything. Pray about it. Ask the Lord for advice on when He wants you to have children. Let's face it, He already knows all the children you will have, their names and the number of their days. So ask Him when the perfect time is.

For me ... the sooner the better.

Discussion: Have you gone to God to ask what He wants for your family? How many children would you like to have? When would you like to have children? What is your reason for the selecting that time?

Prayer: Lord God, our lives and the lives of those you gift us in our family are in Your hands. And what blessings they are, Father. We pray for precious grandbabies in our future and for You to bless them so they may bless Your Kingdom. In Jesus, Amen.