Thoughts on When to Start Your Family

Some of you might remember my review of Steve and Candice Watters' book Start Your family. Just recently they did an interview together about their journey into having children that I found really touching.

While listening, I was reminded that their convictions and passion about this topic truly do come from the heart of walking out this process with the Lord. At one point, Candice says:

"Mary and I were talking and she just said, 'So, are you thinking about having kids?' We’d been married about six months at this point. I said, 'Oh yes, we want kids some day, but we have things we need to accomplish!' She said, 'Well, what are you waiting for?'

I said, 'Well we have all this debt, and I just started this great job. She just looked at me and stopped and said, 'Candice, how do you know that when you decide you’re ready you will still be fertile?'

It was interesting that when I got to the age where we had said we were going to wait I started having some secondary fertility problems. So, I just look at that, and our story and I think if someone hadn’t come along and challenged us there’s a chance we might not have had kids. Or, we might have only had one baby.

Can you imagine having real reason to believe you might have missed out on having children, had not been for the encouragement of others to move forward with forming a family?

On the second part, Steve points out:

"Two percent of people deliberately don’t want any children, but 20% of couples end up not having kids at all. You know its one thing to lose these babies through miscarriage and through still births and other tragedies, but another tragedy is how many lives don’t even get begun because the timeline, the economy, the coach or the pressures around them are keeping them from even being able to pull the trigger to try>

Its a shame that so many marriages are missing out on the blessing of children because of worldly wisdom.

Though they do encourage prudence and not taking the limitations of our bodies for granted, their hearts are tempered by the reality of God's soveriengty and ability to answer prayers, after experiencing a miracle baby of their own. For those details, I encourage you to listen for yourself!

With the direction my own life has taken, delaying my last year of school to have a surprise baby, I have much more peace about this change in plans because of the wisdom I've inherited through their testimony. The Lord has asked me to trust Him with one dream, in exchange for another. I'll admit its been a challenge for me at times, but when it comes down to it, I would much rather open my body to the possibility of having children, and finish school later, than miss this opportunity to see the Lord do such a creative work through Devin and me. We couldn't be more blessed. :)

Please take some time to listen to their interview, and let me know what you think!

Interview:
Part 1: Should We Have a Baby?
Part 2: Getting Started

Related Post:
Start Your Family - Review