I found this great article from Doug Phillips that does such a good explaining what I feel about the "world vs. children" attitude that I see so often. As a mother of 7 young children, I am at times treated very badly by perfect strangers as they admonish me for the oxygen that my children are stealing from them (OK, I have only gotten that comment once)
Doug makes a great point in drawing us to the old story of the child catcher of Vulagria who seeks to rid the earth of children so that adults can roam free and follow their own bliss without that dreaded burden. I would also suggest that my readers check out Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for similar ideals of adult Utopia.
I have long felt that these attitudes are a reason that our world is in some of the trouble that it is in. It is IMO, selfish to not have children. It is this attitude of "me first, what about me"? that has plagued our world since the dawn of time. The Serpent tempted Eve with just such a line. Modern feminism sought to shake off the "shackles" of oppression and find themselves by seeking pleasure on their terms, without children.
As Mary Pride said "birth control is the mother of abortion. More and more people are childless...are they happier? More and more people have only one or two children, but they fail to train these children in anything other than the "ME first" mentality that they were raised on and the cycle continues. Is this what God wants for our lives? Selfish, self obsessed and shallow? How much more joy is there is dying to self?
My question is this, are you happy? Are you fulfilled after banishing children from your lives so that you can pursue career. hobby or vice? Has feminism made you whole and satisfied?
I can say that for me there is nothing missing and nothing broken and that is such a blessing. I am whole, I am content and satisfied. Yes, I may be tired and a bit frazzled in tending to a house full of small children but I would not trade it for anything in this world. I believe in biblical submission to my husband and that has freed me to be who I am in Jesus. Sounds like an oxymoron but I have found freedom in laying down my life for others. Alas, that is another topic. I will get to that later!
Well said, Dawn. I, too, thought Doug Phillips did a great job with his Child Catcher parallels. It's scary.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking so much these past days about how very priveledged we are to live in an area where there are others who are like-minded and we have wonderful opportunities to connect with these people at Pam's or the conference or through co-ops or wherever else. I can't imagine being completely alone and having absolutely NO ONE get it. We are blessed!
~Sara