Musings of a Catholic Convert

Children are a blessing.  Nuff said.  However, I want to say more. I think of the questions my wife and I get about our relatively small family of 6. 

"Are you done yet?"

"Haven't you heard of birth control?"

"How can you afford so many kids?"

"You're not thinking of getting pregnant again, are you?"

I've been on this soapbox before.  Curious how just the presence of a family with greater than 1.5 children gets such unsolicited commentary and questioning.  I know why it happens.  I'm fairly sure anyone who has decided to be open to new life understands why people say those things (and worse things than that).  Conviction, plain and simple.

And it's not just large families.  Choose to do anything beyond the popularly acceptable "bare minimum" of spiritual living and you will face the same thing.  Does your family . . .

- choose to limit television, internet, and music offerings in the home?

- choose to frequent the sacraments (daily Mass, Adoration, Reconciliation)?

- choose to dress modestly?

- choose to do most of your activities as a family (shopping, dining out, recreation choices, etc.)?

Now I ask you, in your choices to do any of these things (and I know I could add more), does it ever occur to you what anybody else does?  You make the decision based on what is best for you and your family, regardless of what anyone else is doing, am I right?  So why is it that people seem to take such offense that we are choosing to live the way we are?  Why do they feel the need to vocalize their self justification of whatever activity they feel is "under attack"?  It's got to be conviction.  

My family is small.  6 people does not an army make.  However, we have 4x the typical number of children in an American home (1.5).  I have friends with much larger families.  The point is not how many kids we have.  I think people must see children as dollar signs, hinderances, something that stands in the way of something they hold dear.  Why else would the thought of children make them say the things they do?  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said that the greatest crime was that people would kill a child so that they could live as they wish.  The principle is the same whether people kill a child through abortion or through taking abortifacient drugs (i.e. the pill.  Read the box, folks.).  It is also the same when people choose to use contraception in their marriage (or non-marriage) rather than excercise self-control in a mutually total self giving love relationship.  Selfishness, greed, objectification, failure to recognize the sovereignty of God, pride.  Any way you slice it, it's sin.  That's what people are convicted of, even though they will swear up and down that they haven't done anything wrong.  Methinks they doth protest too much.

As for the other choices, we aren't doing anything wrong are we?  By not letting our kids watch loads of television or Faces of Death Part 200,000, are we doing harm to someone?  Are we violating someone's first amendment rights?  Nope.  We are excercizing our rights as parents to raise our children according to our convictions, as we believe God would have us honor Him and draw closer to Him.  Why?  Because the bottom line is that as a husband and father, I want nothing less than for my family to have a growing relationship with God through His son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  I am willing to do whatever it takes to protect them, to train them, and to provide for them.  That is my job, and I don't care what you think.  The ramifications of my convictions are that my children will not be watching the same programs and films some of their friends do.  They will not do some of the same activities that some of their friends do, or at least not at the same times many of them do them.  My kids will be one in a million, I have no doubt.  But I'll weather all the words of "advice" from the talking heads and peers, because I know that in the end my kids stand a million times better odds of being successful in life.  It is worth the sacrifice.  It is worth the ridicule.  It is worth the discipline.  My kids are worth it. 

Why the soapbox today?  I just wanted to encourage you, Christian parent.  I want you to know that you're never alone in this.  You know the same things that I do and you are willing to make the same sacrifices that I am.  It's just nice sometimes to hear from someone else in the trenches. 

Hope y'all have a great day.  When you pray together tonight as a family, and I know you will, pray for my family as well.  Know that you are in our family prayers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Family / Chlann, Pro Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.