Raising a Family, Having Children: All Life is Precious

Psalms 127:3 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward."

As I write this post, I'm in the first trimester of pregnancy with our eighth child. Pregnancy is not easy for me and yet, I choose to do it because I love children and it is my belief that my Heavenly Father wants my husband and I to have a large family. In the last two months I have been noticeably tired and had to slow down on my workout routine drastically and that is okay. Life changes force a person to reevaluate depending on the family and life situation.

I have always had such a love for babies and children.   When I was a young girl I couldn't wait to babysit.  I recently got in touch with a family I babysat for over a year and felt like a second mother to the kids.  Tears came to my eyes when the mother shared with me how much impact I had with her kids and my love for them and it inspired her oldest to be a school teacher so she could be with children to influence them too.  She wasn't surprised at all when I told her I had seven children now.

Because of my belief in God and the importance of bringing life into this world, I was saddened when I watched this video clip which contains Mike Huckabee interviewing a woman who was formally the head of an abortion clinic. She quit her job and became pro-life after she watched an abortion performed on a sonogram.  She was told that the womb instead of carrying a "baby" contains masses of cells or a fetus that isn't a human being yet.  What she saw on the screen changed her heart forever. Take a few minutes to see this interview, the story is told here:








"Abortion must be considered one of the most revolting and sinful practices in this day."  “Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it.” [D and C 59:6] There are other alternatives to abortion that allow the baby to live- adoption being the main one.

What these clinics do not tell you is what happens afterward, the sadness and remorse that follows in the mother.  The risks of death to the mother are great as well as infection.

What could be more beautiful that bearing and raising children?  Nothing fulfills me as much as being a wife and mother.  One of the reasons having children is becoming less and less popular in the world is that it requires sacrifice to rear children. 

“A familiar example of losing ourselves in the service of others—this one not unique to Latter-day Saints—is the sacrifice parents make for their children. Mothers suffer pain and loss of personal priorities and comforts to bear and rear each child. Fathers adjust their lives and priorities to support a family. The gap between those who are and those who are not willing to do this is widening in today’s world. . . .“We rejoice that so many Latter-day Saint couples are among that unselfish group who are willing to surrender their personal priorities and serve the Lord by bearing and rearing the children our Heavenly Father sends to their care. We also rejoice in those who care for disabled family members and aged parents. None of this service asks, what’s in it for me? All of it requires setting aside personal convenience for unselfish service. All of it stands in contrast to the fame, fortune, and other immediate gratification that are the worldly ways of so many in our day.”

Dallin H. Oaks, “Unselfish Service,” Ensign, May 2009, 93

I know that the rewards in raising a family will not all be in this life, many will be in the life to come.  There are so many joys and rewards, however, in raising a family.  It is beautiful.

Rachel Keppner had shared this video on her blog and I thought it tied in perfectly to this post.  I have been working on it for almost two weeks, trying to say the things I feel in a loving and hopefully inspiring way. 



"Mothers who know desire to bear children. Whereas in many cultures in the world children are "becoming less valued," in the culture of the gospel we still believe in having children. Prophets, seers, and revelators who were sustained at this conference have declared that 'God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.' President Ezra Taft Benson taught that young couples should not postpone having children and that 'in the eternal perspective, children—not possessions, not position, not prestige—are our greatest jewels.'

"Faithful daughters of God desire children. In the scriptures we read of Eve (see Moses 4:26), Sarah (see Genesis 17:16), Rebekah (see Genesis 24:60), and Mary (see 1 Nephi 11:13–20), who were foreordained to be mothers before children were born to them. Some women are not given the responsibility of bearing children in mortality, but just as Hannah of the Old Testament prayed fervently for her child (see 1 Samuel 1:11), the value women place on motherhood in this life and the attributes of motherhood they attain here will rise with them in the Resurrection (see D& C 130:18). Women who desire and work toward that blessing in this life are promised they will receive it for all eternity, and eternity is much, much longer than mortality. There is eternal influence and power in motherhood." --Julie B. Beck