Children Are A Blessing Not A Burden

Book of Mormon Marriage And Family Study

"Thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee."

What a message about marriage and family! Clearly, Lehi understood the importance of family and the need for righteous families. We live in a world that has largely forsaken God. Having children is seen to the world as a burden instead of a blessing and privilege. The pain for the woman and the sacrifices of the husband are more than worth it. I think Lehi was intentionally having children in his greatest sorrow and afflictions. Certainly, that was a sacrifice but not a burden. I am sure he didn’t see it as a burden despite traveling in the wilderness with little comforts. I think Lehi’s plan was to have children for as long as he was physically able to.

I am confident Lehi’s wife had the same attitude he did. Pregnancy is not easy especially in the wilderness. However, she knew it was a glorious blessing to be a mom.

We should care deeply about health so we can have many children have children in old age.

Some believe having children limits their freedom. I disagree. The opposite is true. It increases your freedom. A family, especially a large family enriches your life deeply and increases your joy despite the challenges and sometimes heartaches.

In many ways, our 60's and 70's should be the prime of our life. Obviously, we will not be as strong physically and we will not be able to do as much; however, in a way this is a blessing. Limitations have a way of helping us focus on what is most important. When we are young and feel invincible we are more susceptible to wasting our life away such as spending hours perfecting a sport and trying to be the best.

Hopefully, by 70 or so we are financially secure enough that we don’t have to spend so much time working for money. We can spend more time serving God and family. Additionally, by then, hopefully we have become more mature spiritually and the worldly things and the light-minded things mean nothing to us. We no longer give time and energy to things in our youth that we thought were so important, but have no meaning whatsoever.

Satan is attacking the family! For many, children are seen as a burden instead of a blessing. Satan also wants to make the financial burden of having children so great that few will have the courage to have children.

If you live in the Salt Lake City valley, I invite you to join us at church on Sunday's at 1 p.m. We are a mid-singles ward; however, if you have a family please don't let that stop you. Please, join us for for our first meeting which is Sacrament meeting, and make sure you ask someone to introduce you to our ward mission leader. Our address is 6770 South 500 East, Midvale Utah, 84047.