The Thing about Money and Babies

I was thinking about the phenomenon of people who decide to stop having children on their own timeline, decide to "shut it down." To me, it's like shutting down streams of income. As I was thinking about this, a whole conversation came into my brain. And it goes like this: No one ever said...

"We gotta shut this down. We have all the money we can handle.

I am getting too old to run after this money. I wanna focus my time and energy on the money I already have.

Money is stressful, I'll stick with two dollars, that way I know I can keep an eye on it and still have time for other things.

Whoa--you have your hands FULL of money! How do you handle it? Money wears me out. It is so draining.

I want to enjoy my summer before I have any more.

This is wearing on my body. I've got wrinkles and stress marks from making too much money. The world is already too full of money, we'd better not add to that.

I can get this money that's being neglected over here, and it probably wouldn't be wise to make my own at the same time.

Before we make any more money, we'd better be able to prove we are able to manage it and take care of it all well.

What, Lord? You want to bless me by giving me more money? Noooooo, people with too much money lose their identity. I don't think I'm cut out for this. That life is just not for me.

I just don't want any more, and I don't like people who say I should have more. They are being legalistic and pushing their personal beliefs on others. I know you give me freedom, Lord, so, thanks but no thanks. Besides, I can better serve the kingdom and all these awesome ministries if I'm not bogged down taking care of so much cash.

Don't bless me any more, Lord. I'm maxed out. I'm done."

 LOL, you can tell I was having fun with all the excuses I've heard (or said myself in the past!) So, to run with this idea, of course the analogy is not perfect, it breaks down at some point, but here's another scenario:

Someone asks you how many children you would like to have. Why that's like asking someone how much money they'd like to have; how many jewels. I want to say, "Uhh....All of it? ...As much as God wants to give me." That is safe to say, right?

But then, here's the thing: do we hold out a giant bucket when God is wanting to give us treasure? Or do we hold out a small espresso cup, or even hold our bucket upside down? A friend of mine, while discussing this topic, said very humorously that in money's defense, her money never spilled the coffee beans all over the grocery store floor while she was trying to get its brother's foot unstuck from the cart. Haha. Good point. But:

Lots of money and lots of children both come with their share of stigmas, challenges, and responsibility.

And—here's something to ponder—there are MANY warnings in the Bible about the dangers of having too much money, but how many about the danger of having too many children? NONE. So why do we hear so much about that in the world—and church? So much worry, so much fear. So much self-serving, right-sounding, worldly wisdom. Our humanistic self has it backwards.

And by the same token, why is it considered OK to ask God for children, but not really holy to ask Him for money? We have to learn righteousness through poverty, right?

I want to challenge all these things that have become christianese norms. Where do the ideas stem from? Are they really Biblically sound? Are they truly Spirit-led? I want to REALLY examine God's heart on parenthood, why it exists, His BEST for marriage and society and Kingdom. They may make us uncomfortable, but we haven't really made an educated decision about family, and even finances, unless we've also looked into the possibility that God's desire wants to lead us down paths other than the current church-crowd way... Will you look?