Are You Really Ready to Have Children? Really?

This is a question many of us need to stop and ask before we have children. It’s interesting to me that you have to take a test for everything considered important except for a paternity test. Now we’re not speaking of a paternity test as to who is the father. We’re speaking of the qualifications that should be established before you have children. It seems to me that there should be this seal that dissolves once you pass the test. Right now all that’s required is that you have a reproductive system that sends out eggs and is fertilized with a sperm. You don’t have to be employed, have a home, have any form of education, show any sense of responsibility, be married, or possess any common sense.

Call me crazy, but I think there’s something wrong with this process. Especially when you consider it is one of the most awesome responsibilities anyone can embark on. Imagine you are shaping a life and conditioning that life either to be a productive citizen or a burden to society. You are giving them values that will pass down from generation to generation.

Do we have an example of someone to follow who gives us clear guidance as to when it’s appropriate to have a child? I say unequivocally yes!!!. If you read Genesis the first book in the Old Testament, we find that God has provided the perfect road map for us to follow. I submit that if we follow it we can’t possibly go wrong and we can yell from the top of our lungs, “Yes, I am ready to have children.”

In the book of Genesis the first chapter we find that the world was void. Nothing was in existence until the Lord called those things into being. The first thing He did was create the climate suitable for man and woman to live in. He made sure the air was fresh and that it would sustain them. He made sure the environment was right at any given moment to ensure we would be warm when we needed to be and cool when we needed to be. He called the vegetation into place and ensured that it was pesticide free and good for all manner of nutrition. He created a dwelling place suitable for each of its kind from the animal to mankind. It was after He made sure sufficient sustenance was in place for mankind that He made mankind.

The record shows that He first made man. When man was formed and the breath of life was blown into his lungs and he became a living soul, God gave him his marching orders. God taught the man how to take dominion over all things. He gave him responsibility and taught man the ways of God. Once God prepared the man for his role in life, He made woman. He took special time with her to be sure He was preparing the right mate, a help mate for the man. He knew what was required of man and his role to woman before he made woman just as He knew what was needed in woman to meet the needs of man. The record shows that God presented her to man and the two became one in every way. He continued to walk with Adam and Eve and ever so gently instruct them in the way of life. God viewed them as equals as the record shows that He gave them, man and woman, dominion over all things.

They lacked nothing. They were able to focus on each other because their environment was already positioned for peace and tranquility. There was no need for bickering or attitude. They were both clear as to the direction of their life as laid out by God. Of course, like so many of us, they didn’t always do as their parents instructed and consequences arose that caused them to lose face. Even though God had to punish them, He didn’t take away their basic needs for survival. It was with the basic needs in place and the ability to continually provide that God allowed Adam and Eve to have children.

So you see we do have a road map. If put into succinct instructions, it would look something like this.

1. It requires a man and woman to be married.
2. It requires that a man be employed and that he has sufficient resources to provide  food, shelter and medical care for the entire family.
3. It requires that the woman has received instruction from an equipped woman to ensure that she understands how to love and care for her family. How to ensure that the resources her husband provides meet the family budget. Meaning she must be frugal and make each dollar the man brings home stretch as far as it can go.
4. It requires both father and mother to have a close walk with the Lord. A very personal relationship with Him to ensure that their instruction is in line with the wishes of God.
5. It requires the parents to have a true desire to set a positive example for their children so that their children will in turn raise healthy God-centered families.

Are these the only conditions in which one should allow themselves to bare children? Of course it’s the optimum one, but no it is not the only time that, if pregnant, one should have the child. If you find that you have not done as this road map suggests, then stop post haste and reevaluate what is missing from this checklist and seek God to see how you can remedy any area lacking to ensure that you are not encumbering the child but that you are truly giving your child a fair start in life.

Once you have taken on the most awesome responsibility and made the most important decision of your life, it is imperative that you ensure that you are giving your child the best that you have to offer. Once you become pregnant what you want and what you need takes second place to the needs of your child. You can still raise a healthy productive and God-centered child if you make that a priority in your life. The bible tells us to raise up a child in the way he or she should go and when they leave home they will not depart. Of course this doesn’t mean that the child will never go astray. It does mean that your child will call to remembrance everything that you taught them and they will draw on those important lessons to sustain themselves.

Notice the list doesn’t say that you have to own your own home or make six figures or have a college degree or drive an expensive car. Notice the list doesn’t say that each adult has to model some imaginary image only found in magazines. The list doesn’t say that years of training is a must, it’s helpful but not a must. The list is simply helping each of us redefine what is decent and in order, or rather how to do things decent and in order.

We are supposed to be the example to the world and yet Christians have become more like the world than the world. I am encouraging you women, woman 2 woman, please instruct your daughters and govern yourselves accordingly. Make sure that you are doing things decent and in order. Let’s restore piety and purity in our lives and live up to the standard set forth in our operator’s manual, the Holy Bible.