What it REALLY means to let God plan our family.

There seem to be some common misconceptions about the "Quiverfull" lifestyle, a name dubbed from Psalm 127, which also calls children a heritage and a reward from the Lord. These misconceptions are shared by both Christians and non-believers as well.

First, we acknowledge and accept with all humility that GOD is the ONLY Creator of life. WE do not make babies, only GOD does! Without a soul, there would be NO life, and only God can create an immortal soul and knit it together into a body of flesh during the nine month journey within a mother's womb. This soul is created BEFORE conception (Jer 1:5) and is implanted into the body vessel at the moment of conception, when life biologically begins. Biology can explain the formation of the body of flesh, but only God can provide the soul that gives that body life. 

The Christian life, the life that has been washed by the Blood of our Saviour and dedicated to the Lord, is a life of faith. Faith in our Lord, trusting that He knows what is best for us, and will provide for our every need. (Prov 3:5-6) In TRUSTING the Lord coupled with KNOWING that He alone is the Author of life, we can thereby TRUST that the Lord will ONLY give conception if #1, it is in His plan for that child to be born; #2, it is in His plan for us to be the parents of that child; and #3, He is willing to provide for said child. 

The LORD opens and closes the womb by His sovereign hand (Isaiah 44:2, 24; Genesis 20:18; 29:31; 30:2, 22; 49:25; 1 Samuel 1:5-6; Job 31:15; Psalm 139:13; Jeremiah 1:5; Exodus 23:26; Deut 7:14), and no amount of biological action can create a baby if God is not willing. There are many families who experience that fact firsthand, and my heart goes out to them along with my prayers. <3

Second, we do not hoard children. Children are not the latest commodity that we just HAVE to have! They aren't shoes, or trinkets, or status for that matter. They are eternal living souls that we are only borrowing for a time. Our children are on loan to us so that we may raise them up in the Lord, then give them BACK to Him one day, as Hannah did (1 Samuel), when they are ready to answer the call upon their lives to come to know Christ and follow Him. Our children do not belong to US, they belong to HIM! We welcome them, of course! We love children, we desire the blessing and favor of the Lord, who wouldn't? Yet sadly many become so wrapped up in culture that they would gladly accept the blessing of money or possessions over the even greater blessing of children. We don't MAKE children happen, because we know that it is fruitless. We simply enjoy the blessing that God has placed on marriage, the physical relationship between husband and wife (1 Cor 7:5), and trust that God knows what He is doing. We don't fret if it doesn't happen because we know that by God's will alone a child is born. We don't force it, we don't desecrate the holy marriage bed by enjoying one another only in order to cause conception. We simply rest in the promise of God, and trust in His timing.

Believe it or not, MOST "quiverfull minded" families do NOT grow up to have 20 children! Exceptionally large families are the exception, not the rule! The average number of children in Lord-planned homes is usually around five or six. Not to mention that I don't believe ANY large family will tell you that they planned to have that many children from the get-go, but that they were simply open to whatever the Lord had in store for them. :-) I know we didn't. The Lord has a way of convicting hearts, and softening them, and changing them. Once we began to see the truth of the matter, about where children came from, and who created them, we found freedom and peace in knowing that God would provide for any place He will lead us. Then, once we began to see children as a blessing, a heritage, and an investment in the Kingdom of God, our whole attitude changed completely. 

Lastly, and this is the one that I really cannot understand.... we are not selfish for bringing children into the world. Well, first off, WE don't bring children into the world, but we've already covered that. The ONLY thing we can choose to do is either let them live or kill them via abortion. Once we choose to participate in the physical bond meant as a blessing for marriage, that is the only role we play. Second, how in the world can giving our lives to serve, raise, educate, and care for our children be seen as selfish or self-serving? Serving others has no root in selfishness. As aforementioned, we do not collect children. We choose to accept them and bring them up for the Lord alone, regardless of self. God does not call us to mind our own best interests or to follow our heart. The heart is deceitful above all else and no man can know it. However, He does call us to HIS best interests FOR us, which can only be seen and felt if we allow HIM to be in control of our lives.

We welcome children into our lives as a heritage, as blessings, because that is how God sees children, and that is how He gives them. NO child is a mistake, or unplanned, and NO conception happens without the hand of God over it. Resting in His promises, we welcome children into our lives. We willingly welcome the Lord's use of our bodies, our time, our money, and our resources to make this possible, because we know that the HOME is the greatest mission field in the world, for it is where eternal souls are brought up which will one day make an impact on this world. 

"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller