Saturday, August 23, 2008

Quiverful Revisited

Children: Blessing or Burden

As many of you know, I write one blog and then post it on several different sites. At one of these sites, a woman posted this response to my quiverful article. I have chosen to reprint it with answers:-)

I can't believe this b*******. Can you imagine a god who blesses some and condemns others?? I can't believe intelligent people fall for this b*******. I spent 15 years in a full gospel, evangelical church. I WAS BRAINWASHED into believing their lies. There are children all over the world starving to death ! Dying children. God does not provide for them. I served God, I served my husband and he left and god left and now I am completely alone. Alone in this world with a pregnant daughter who had to leave her abusive husband. I can't afford to eat or live. God provides for NOBODY, I make my own money and have to pay my own bills and GOD has NEVER helped me….
I am so sorry you have had such a hard time. The world is evil and life isn’t easy.

God blesses all who serve Him. Some He blesses in different ways than others, but He blesses all. For example, my hubby and I are blessed with 8 wonderful children. My brother, who loves the Lord as much as I do, has not been blessed with any birth children but has been blessed with a very good paying job and a very nice house. He also is in the ministry in a mega church while ours is very small. We both feel very blessed, but in our own unique way. God knows what is best for each of us, and more importantly for His kingdom. Does this mean some of us may have to suffer a little to further His work? Yes. But it is worth it.

God is eternally, perfectly good. He gave us laws to live by to protect us and our neighbors (including “Love the Lord your God with everything you have.”). Breaking these laws is called sin. Sin makes God ANGRY! He HATES to see people hurt, whether by themselves or by others. Thus He set in place punishment for sin. Some punishment happens in this life and some in the next. only those who choose to obey His rules will be allowed into heaven.

“Bad things” that happen are always the result of someone not obeying God’s laws. Earthquakes, floods, etc. are the result of Adam’s disobedience. Murder, stealing, and, yes, single mothers who can’t afford to eat are often the result of someone else’s sin.

God sees and He knows. But God is a gentleman. He will not barge into our lives and start changing things without our permission. If you want Him completely out of your life, He will spend time trying to change your mind. But ultimately He will leave you alone to make your own way. Right now we have one world; partly absent and partly present with God. there is some good and some evil. In the afterlife there will be two worlds; one where God is in everything and is everywhere and one where He gives the sinner his wish; total absence of God (this is known as hell) If He is not helping you right now it is because you are not letting Him, though I would argue that He is helping you. You evidently have a job. Not everyone can say that. Are you so sure that that is totally your doing?

God has a different perspective on children dying than we do. He knows the future and I honestly believe He will sometimes take a child to Him early instead of letting the child grow to the age where they are eternally lost. This sounds mean I know, but it isn’t really. Not when you know that this life is just a blink of the eye compared to eternity. Most of those children starving today are in countries where they would likely grow up to be either Muslims or Hindus. God loves them so much He is insuring their salvation by not giving them a chance to sin. A life time suffering in a few short years and then PARTY!

The Bible says a man that does not take care of his family is worse in God’s eyes than an atheist. It is a worse sin to let your own family go hungry and without the things they need (and I believe this includes spiritual training) than it is to not believe God exists. Your hubby and son-in-law WILL answer to a vengeful, just God.

… I feel sorry for these poor people and those poor children. 18 people in a household, how can you possibly provide all the love, attention, guidance etc to 18 children?? It is ridiculous to think that god controls the birth of children. The fact of nature is that women reproduce and that happens by natures will not gods. If you don't protect yourself against pregnancy - guess what, you will get pregnant. That's the law of the jungle. Now these people will get rich and rake in the fame and fortune because they are stupid enough to believe that god gave them all these children. it's like couples who are infertile, take drugs to correct it, have multiple children and thank god for it. WRONG !! Women are not meant to carry litters. But I guess that's another topic.
I am assuming you are referring to the Duggers. I don’t think I have ever mentioned them in any of my blogs, but I do know who they are.

The Duggers are not making any money off of the attention they are getting. God provided for them long before they became known and they don’t need it.

I can understand how it would be hard to comprehend one mother providing all the emotional needs of 18 children. This is because the only samples of child management in our country are 1) our own very small families where mommy is the be all and end all of the child’s care and 2) classrooms filled with 30 or more children all the same age. You are absolutely right that one person can not provide 18 children of the same age with the care and attention they need (which makes me wonder why anyone thinks traditional school is GOOD for any child. Obviously they are not getting their emotional needs met. But I digress…) A large family is very different from either one.

A good example is my own much smaller family (I sure don’t get to say that very often, LOL!) I was my oldest child’s only source of company, love, training, guidance, and care (until my very tired hubby got home from work anyway). This was hard work and required lots of time and energy.

My eighth child has eight people with her every day (we homeschool) ranging from me to my 4 year old who love her and want to teach her. If I wasn’t breastfeeding, I might not ever get to hold her! My oldest children, in an effort to practice being grown, are constantly teaching the younger ones, freeing time for me to continue teaching the older ones. The younger ones have the example of the older ones on how to behave. So the fact is that while I may be more stretched, personally, than I was 16 years ago, I have been multiplied by eight to my littlest one! All children should be so lucky as to have seven older siblings! That “poor” Dugger child that is due in January will have, essentially, 19 mommies and daddies loving, caring, guiding, and training him!

“If you don't protect yourself against pregnancy - guess what, you will get pregnant”

Hmmm. Really? Tell that to my brother. He is also quiverful and has been married 13 years.

And “PROTECT yourself against pregnancy.” There is that evil disease again- PREGNANCY. You would think it was worse than cancer to hear some people talk:-( it is the only area of life where we intentionally break a perfectly working body and think it is a good thing. How can we with a straight face possibly say we like children when we speak of getting them as the worst calamity that could happen to a woman?

The fact is that the Bible is plain. God can and does control the womb. He always speaks of children as blessings and everywhere He talks of blessing a people, He begins by saying they will have lots of babies. We, in our arrogance, think we are controlling it. As I said, He won’t push His way in uninvited and so lets us have our own way most of the time. But do you really think the epidemic numbers of infertility in this country are just a coincidence? The book of Deuteronomy tells us that if a country as a whole keeps God’s commands, they will be blessed with lots of babies. If they don’t, their wombs will be barren. This does not necessarily mean barrenness is a punishment on the individual couples (though occasionally it is). It is a curse on a nation.

I agree that women aren’t meant to carry litters any more than horses are. But a good horse will give her owner one foal a year for some 10-15 years! And there is increasing research showing that it is healthier to have a large number of children than not.

• Fetal stem cells are left behind after birth and often heal ailing parts of mommy’s system.
• Having a period every month for thirty or more years is being discovered to cause cancer. Pregnancy naturally protects from this.
• Breast feeding prevents breast cancer. Hmm, use it the way God intended or loose it?
• Men who have lots of children and take care of themselves physically live to over 100 more often than those that just take care of themselves.

I understand your bitterness and am prying for God to show Himself to you. He WILL care for you if you let Him. I also hope you do not take your hard times out on your precious new grandchild. The Bible says grandchildren are the crown of their grandparents:-) It just might be that God is sending you someone full of love and innocence just in the time you and your daughter need it. Accept this child as the blessing he is meant to be. You may not always see the blessing part, but it is there and you can depend on it.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Long weeks and the case for Jesus.

Blahhh. Sick kids. Washer broke. Ice maker not working. Dishwasher being tempermental. Long week. Glad it is almost over.



Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Do we love children?

Not in America we don’t. Pay attention some time to how many comments you hear about children and how many of them are negative. “You wouldn’t think him sweet if you lived with him.” “We were scared. We thought we had had an accident.” “Aren’t you glad it’s school time again, mommy?” “Better you're pregnant than me!” “I’m getting fixed (having children is being broken, you see)”

There is definitely a prejudice against large families, especially. From the number of spaces allotted for children on forms to how hard it is to find a big enough table at a restaurant.

The contempt shown to parents of large families

“Rich countries, by contrast, prefer to increase their standard of living rather than the number of the living…Why is it that even many synagogues today are not children friendly? Why are people impressed that Jay Leno owns 20 motorcycles, but disgusted that some religious families choose to have 10 children?”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49074


The hardest part of my job is that everyone lies about parenting
“What’s interesting is the part where parents love their kids but don’t love being with them on a daily basis. It’s very scary to write. But I’m telling you, if the feeling weren’t ubiquitous then there would be no one to be in middle management working 9-5 because they’d all be home with their kids, doing freelance work after bedtime…People are choosing to go to work rather than stay with their kids all day. But no one talks about making this choice …”
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/06/10/the-hardest-part-of-my-job-is-that-everyone-lies-about-parenting/#comments


How could you not want more of these?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk&feature=related

Friday, August 08, 2008

Many women are MAD

YOU CAN’T HAVE IT ALL!!!!

The feminists LIED!

We were told to go to college, get settled in a career, then marry, THEN have children. This plan necessitates delaying childbearing until at least 30. Then you can have a great job, home, hubby, and children. “You can have it all!”

They ignored or were ignorant of basic biology. A woman’s fertility drops by 50% by the age of 30 if she hasn’t had any children yet. It keeps plummeting until many, many women are infertile by 35. (Men’s fertility drops dramatically by this age also, by the way) It turns out if you don’t have children by your mid 20’s, there is a good chance you won’t have children….period.

And marriage? Honey, all the good men will be married by the time they are 35. You will be left with either someone much older who is widowed or divorced (with all the baggage that entails) than you or the “leftovers.”

The fact is, if you marry young, hubby and wife can “grow up” together. They never have to learn to adjust to another human in the house because it has always been that way. Their marriage is much stronger.

And children? The earlier the better. The sooner you carry a baby to term the more likely you will be able to carry a baby to term. The younger you begin to have children the more you are likely to have. And, frankly , if the western world doesn’t start having more babies- and soon- we might as well all go out and buy our burkhas . We are killing our culture by simply not having enough children to carry it on to the next generation. Don’t believe me? Run the math: the average “western” woman is having 1.8 (or fewer) babies. The average Muslim woman is having 6.5 (even if she lives in America or Europe.) It is less than 20 years before those Muslim babies are voting!

Even if you manage to do it all (have a career, home, hubby, and children) the fact is there simply isn’t enough time in the day to truly HAVE it all.

· The average American house needs 35 hours per week of maintenance (shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.)
· The average child needs a minimum of 8 hours of time from someone who loves them enough to go through labor for them (most daddies would, if they could, so that counts), per day, to be mentally healthy (That time includes the time spent helping with the house work. It is in fact detrimental to a child to have that much focused time. But they need that much time being a working member of a household. More is better.)
· Hubby needs at least 15 minutes per day. Your marriage will be strengthened exponentially by each hour spent together.
· You need about eight hours of sleep per night to keep away illness.

This all adds up to a minimum of 21.25 hours per day! How are you going to fit a job in there? And this is just the bare minimum. Without this, something has to suffer, usually the children as they are the least able to fight for what they need. Marriages also suffer in our “liberated” world. “The propensity to divorce is apparently correlated with two-income families. Hymowitz notes that the “traditional families, with breadwinner husband and stay-at-home wife had the lowest rate of divorce.” Women employed 80% of the time since the birth of their first child are twice as likely to be divorced as stay-at-home moms.” (http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1511/article_detail.asp )

Heaven forbid we let our job suffer!



The sins of our feminist mothers
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/22/1026898972150.html

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Be Fruitful and Multiply

I just finished reading Nancy Campbell’s “Be Fruitful and Multiply.” Though this book held very little new information, the information and arguments in it were very well written and enjoyable to read. The book is actually a bible study, though I didn’t read all the questions, but skipped to the “meat” of each chapter.

The chapters are: (parentheses are my comments on each chapter, not the author’s)
1. The first commandment (Do you know what God’s first command to humankind was?)
2. God loves increase (Did you know that every time God says He will bless someone, He says He will multiply them?)
3. The blessing
4. Gifts from God (Children are gifts from God).
5. Arrows for God’s army (Are you going into battle unarmed?)
6. Build the home and leave a legacy (Americans tend to be embarrassed to admit they would like to leave a legacy of offspring just like them, but it is natural and biblical)
7. The natural function (What were you created for)
8. Trust and obey (God)
9. God’s provision (God doesn’t give white elephants.)
10. The blessed seed (Not sure I agree with her conclusions in this chapter)
11. When did contraception begin? (She talks a great deal about Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. This woman was a bigot through and through. Her total aim in founding PP was to exterminate blacks, Jews, the handicapped and the poor! She would turn over in her grave to discover that today rich white families have fewer children than the poor. Even today, you will find more PP centers in poor and minority neighborhoods than in the rich ones. And the black population in America is dwindling. Some cities had more black abortions last year than births! This would thrill this evil woman. And now that we know that the pill and IUD cause abortions also (they only prevent ovulation 90% of the time. The rest of the time there is a good chance conception takes place but the hormones in these products prevents the new baby from implanting so it dies), it makes this organization even worse. One film I watched recently had an interview with an ex-executive of PP. This woman says they would intentionally give teen girls the low dose, largely ineffective pill. Within a year of their opening a clinic in a neighborhood the pregnancy rate would have more than doubled. The workers in these clinics are paid on COMMISION! The more abortions the clinic performs, the more babies they kill, the more money they make! The woman in this interview was pulling in six figures when she got saved and quit her job. This is a multi million dollar organization that makes a BIG profit on women’s confusion and misery. The pill has been linked to breast cancer and cancers of the reproductive organs, heart disease, blood clots, and infertility. Abortions have been linked to breast cancer, infertility, miscarriage, post traumatic stress syndrome. Sometimes babies are not quite killed in an abortion and are born alive. They are usually left to die of starvation or they have their skulls crushed, or they are bled to death. Most of what I have written here came from other sources, by the way; not this book. She does have a great deal to say on the subject however. For example; have you ever noticed that birth control, sterilization, and abortion rights are always talked about together?)
12. To which kingdom do you belong? (If Satan hates people and God loves people, who would be behind our birth control mentality?)
13. Protect your unborn babies from death. (Details on the pill causing babies to die. She runs the numbers. Did you know there were an average of 1 million Jews killed every year during WW2? There are more than 1.2 million babies killed in abortions in the US every year. If Mrs. Campbell’s numbers are correct, the pill alone may be causing more than 2 million early abortions per year. )
14. The sovereignty of God. (Is God Lord (Boss) of ALL areas of your life or just some of them? Did you know that vasectomies cause prostate cancer, performance problems, kidney disease, heart disease, abscess of the liver, allergies and many more diseases (immune dysfunctions due to sperm not going where it is supposed to.) Tubals cause endometriosis which leads to hysterectomy which causes osteoporosis, hormone imbalance, necessitating hormone replacement therapy which causes cancer and heart disease.)
15. The vision.(Do you have a vision for conquering the world for Jesus? A very practical plan being used by Muslims today and easily implemented by Christians with at least as much success is presented.)
16. Do not deprive. (God, eternity, your children, your souse, yourself, society)
17. Why parents in the 21st century love having children (A list of 101 reasons sent to this author for having more children. My favorite is #61- We still have an empty seat in our van.)
18. What do children say (A list of what children say about having more children. Adorable)

I highly recommend this book.

Was Jesus a vegitarian

Wonderful article. Plain spoken straight from the Bible.

http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/DidJesusEatMeat.htm

If it is immoral to eat meat, and Jesus ate meat, Than Jesus was immoral. I am not willing to say that. Are you?