I think it's important that the Church is teaching about the blessing of children, counteracting the many unbiblical crazy ideas that are out there about family and about children. And essentially a lot of that finds its basis in selfishness. We live in a culture where we're encouraged to think about ourselves, think about our own pleasures, our own time. And that's contrary to the idea of having a family, having children, especially early on. But God says children are a blessing.

But they're not always a blessing in the way that we might expect. So we might think children are a blessing because everything's gonna go smoothly and wonderfully, but that's not the case. Children are a blessing in many different ways. And one of the ways is they help us to become more like Christ. Because as parents we are almost forced in a good way into a situation where our lives don't become like a cup where we're poured into.

Yes from the Lord, but our lives become poured out into our children's. And so there's that sense of living for others. There's that sense of investing in their lives. If we want to just live for ourselves, have our own pleasures, our own time, then that's just not God's plan. That's why he has children in our lives, because as he says in his word, that to be trained up is to be sent out.

And so, particularly as we consider the world around us, the need for the gospel, the way that Satan has a foothold in so many places, it is so vital that we raise up children who are strong in him, who are desiring to serve him, who fear him, and who we can launch into the world, to the front lines of battle, to do damage in the heart of the enemy and help to increase the Kingdom of God.