Regardless of What Our Culture Thinks, Children Are a Blessing

Photo by Larm Rmah on Unsplash
Recently, I came across an article in World Magazine where the author addresses the issue of our current generation not wanting to have children or being concerned about having children. Quoting another source, the author writes about how millennials view parenting as something that “will require them to sacrifice everything that brings them pleasure.” With such a negative and erroneous view of parenting, it is no wonder the self-described acronym “DINK” is becoming more appealing on social media (Dual Income, No Kids). The author writes of how many DINKs on social media tout the benefits of not having children, such as “lazy Saturday mornings, regular travel, dinners out, and restful nights of sleep…” 
 
Sadly, in a separate article published in Christianity Today, the author notes that “the birth rate in the United States is declining. It’s often assumed this decline represents our waning desire for children, but researchers from the University of North Carolina and The Ohio State University disagree. Their data indicates that Americans between the ages of 20–24 want as many children as desired historically. However, it does seem people today are putting off the task of raising children—and as they do, the ideal number of children shrinks.” But why is this happening, particularly among Evangelicals, and is it biblical? To be sure, there are a variety of reasons millennials and, among them, Evangelicals are postponing having children, having fewer children, and (in some cases) choosing not to have children at all. The author later posits that the “anxieties about parenthood today are real: economic uncertainties, ecological crisis, fears of inadequacy for such a consequential task. Whether evangelicals have shared these fears isn’t clear, but in recent years, evangelicals have joined the broader culture in having fewer children and having them later.”

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