In the previous post, I talked about the mentality our society has regarding children. This mentality is often shared by us, Christians, and we fall into the trap of seeking instant gratification, for which children certainly don’t help much.
To begin discussing how we should view having children, according to the Creator Himself, we must look at the narrative of the moment when our first parents were created. In Genesis 1:26-27, God set out to do something completely different from the rest of creation. In fact, as Moses presents it, we are witnessing the pinnacle of creation, the most sublime moment of God’s creative act. The Almighty Maker created Adam and Eve in a completely personal way, while the rest of the cosmos was brought into existence simply by speaking.
But I want us to focus on the words God spoke when He had completed His work. We see this in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'” There are five commands the Lord gives to humans: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. We can summarize these five commands into two: man and woman were to have children and conquer the earth. These two commands go hand in hand. To conquer the earth, to reach everywhere, they had to be numerous, so they needed to multiply. To multiply, they had to spread out.
In other words, regarding children: the first commandment God gave to humanity was to have children. It wasn’t to sing in worship, get a degree, or buy a car. The first thing the Creator commanded mankind was to multiply.
This isn’t taught in churches. Our young people grow up rejecting the idea of having children because they think, following the world’s way, that God wants them to be happy, and that can’t happen by having kids. But the reality is quite the opposite. God wants us to have children, and that’s the reason He made us this way.
Let me explain. When it comes to young people, the reality is they grow up in a sea of hormones that lead them to seek sexual satisfaction in any way possible. We all need to be very careful with pornography and fornication, but we must be especially cautious with the youth. Why? Because testosterone fills their bloodstreams, especially in males, making them crave sex with all their might. What a curious thing, right? Maybe God made a mistake when He designed young people like this.
No, God did not make a mistake. He made them very, very well. We are the ones who are wrong. Why would God flood the bloodstreams of our young people with hormones that cry out for sex? The answer lies in the text before us, Genesis 1:28. God wants our young people to fulfill the first of all biblical commandments: to have children. The sexual drive isn’t there for them to open pornographic websites, not even for them to “burn” with passion, but for them to seek a good wife. Testosterone is like a divine rocket booster designed to turn selfish, immature boys into men who marry and have children.
The average age at which Spaniards get married is 33.4 years old[1], while the average age at which they lose their virginity is 13 years old[2]. Do you see that something is terribly wrong? Our society has been designed in such a way that it inevitably misaligns with God’s design and makes fulfilling the first commandment nearly impossible. As a church, we must do something, and we must do it urgently.
We need to train our young people, not to deny their sexual instincts, which were created by God for a good purpose, but to channel them correctly. Under no circumstances should our young people follow the ways of the world, which pushes them to wait an eternity to get married, often at the will of their parents.
Listen, obeying God and avoiding sin is more important than getting a degree, landing a good job, or buying an apartment. Besides, why shouldn’t someone finish their studies while being married? I finished my degree while married and my master’s degree with a daughter, and the same goes for my wife. So what exactly are we waiting for when biology and divine design tell us to get married? I understand that today’s priority is enjoying life, traveling, and having freedom, and that doesn’t fit well with getting married and having children. Well, God has a much bigger plan than ours because He knows us far better than we know ourselves. In the next post, I will talk about how terribly we have misunderstood the concept of blessing, and to wrap things up, we’ll tackle a classic text when discussing the blessing that children are, to see the immense relevance of the Bible to our lives and this issue.
[1] https://www.larazon.es/sociedad/espanoles-que-mas-tarde-casan-toda_20240403660d8e0e0999030001ced34d.html#:~:text=Seg%C3%BAn%20los%20datos%20del%20estudio,tarde%20que%20la%20media%20europea. Access October 02, 2024.
[2] https://www.ividono.es/blog/curiosidades/edad-pierden-virginidad-hombres/#:~:text=Virginidad%20masculina%3A%20%C2%BFa%20qu%C3%A9%20edad,la%20edad%20de%2013%20a%C3%B1os. Access October 02, 2024.
