A New Perspective

                Isn’t it interesting how fewer people are having children? What are the factors that go into that? Why not have more? The biggest reason I believe people are having fewer children is because the increase in changing of values.  There are so many other factors that go into that, but the biggest one is that our values have shifted.

               Think about it. 100 years ago many people valued family life as their number 1 value. Now things have changed immensely. Now it’s all about what you can prove to whom and how much. It’s about fame and glam, and being whoever you want to be however you want to be that person. In this world you can be anything you want. Literally anything you want. Michael Jackson “turned” himself white because he didn’t want to be black. Others change their gender because they don’t want to be just “male” or “female.” They don’t want to be defined by titles, yet titles are what they are looking for! It’s so confusing!

               What a drastic change our world has taken. And where does family fit into all of this? It doesn’t. Marriage is a big reason children are being put off. 1) the absence of marriage is a cause, and 2) the delaying of marriage is a cause. For example, Logan and I got married when I was 24 and we are just now trying for kids. Had we got married when I turned 20, we would have tried for kids a lot sooner, and possibly would have more kids than we are currently planning on. Still, God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps He will bless us with more than we planned on anyway.

               One thing I really admired about my Great Grandmother Mary Wright was that she had fifteen children. Fifteen! In todays world that’s unheard of! And guess what? She LOVED IT! Sure she had her struggles, but she really loved having the company around the home. She loved how much a new baby relied on her for their everyday needs. What if our world was to be much like her? Don’t you think things would drastically change?

               Lets take some time to compare my great grandmother’s views on life vs the views on life today. Who do you think is happier: the person who changed their gender and is acquiring a successful career with no children, or my grandmother who has fifteen blessings in her life? In the eternal world, family is one of the only things we can take with us. People in Heaven aren’t going to care about how many Ferrari’s you had, or how big your home was. People are going to care about what you did and who you became and how you overcame difficulties, and how many children you had.

               I believe it was my dad who visited an elderly couple in a home where they had no children, and my dad thought, “How sad, how lonely, and to have no posterity…” That stuck with me for many years.

               There are many other factors that go into people not having children everywhere from shifting values to birth control to goals and ambitions. I think a big one is societal pressure to have a specific parenting style that allows you to spend time with your kids rather than letting your kids entertain each other. My professor pointed out that when kids are born into a family, those kids create a bond with their siblings, not just their parents which is something I find fascinating. But that’s a topic for another time. For now, ponder the differences between a worldly lifestyle and a family one. There might be a discovery waiting there for you.