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Thoughts from Rick Arndt, a non-Catholic Christian and father of fourteen, on raising a large family.
When you and Cathy got married, did you plan on having a big family?
Only in the sense that we made a commitment, from the first day of our marriage, to simply trust the Father in every detail of life. We made the mutual decision to welcome the miraculous little lives that we hoped He would send our way. In our minds and hearts, this meant that we would not utilize any means of birth control. Of particular concern to us was the fact that birth control pills are abortifacients, which have the potential to abort a newly-conceived life.
Realizing that so many factors have to line up perfectly for the wonder of human conception to occur, we did not feel comfortable taking measures to block such a wondrous event. Our willingness to trust the Father with this area of our lives was based on the simple realization that it would be, logically speaking, a lot easier for Him to provide for a newly-arrived member of the family than to create and fashion that little one in the first place. Put another way -- if He is awesome and magnificent enough that He is able to bring forth a unique, complex human life, how could we ever doubt that He would eagerly and generously help us love and provide for that "freshly-knit" little one?
Over the years we have marveled at the way in which the promise of Jesus -- "Give and you shall receive" -- has shown itself to be true within our ordinary, everyday lives. It has often been said that "You can't outgive God." By placing Him first, receiving His Son, and trusting Him as Father, with child-like faith, one receives what Jesus, in John 10:10, describes as "abundant life." We have come to believe that life is more exciting and fruitful when we completely surrender everything to Jesus -- our bodies, our finances, our desires -- than it is when we try to straddle the fence and retain control over certain areas. In addition, we have found that living a life of obedience and trust toward the Father frees us to experience more joy, energy, health, lightheartedness and creativity from day to day.
Of course, this realization does not mean that we "check our brains at the door." It does mean that our minds are free of the tremendous weight and responsibility of having to discover solutions to every problem of life based upon our own limited knowledge. If our weight -- our dependence -- is placed upon a loving Father who is infinitely good and fair, who knows the past, present and future, and who has unlimited power and authority, our entire beings are able to relax and thrive more easily, as we remember that He, in his infinite love, is personally handling every detail of our lives -- even in times of confusion and stress.
The path that Cathy and I have traveled as parents has at times led over rough roads, or through patches of thorns, but what a wonderful adventure the last quarter-century has been! Each of our children is unique and amazing, and brings an ingredient to the "family team" that is irreplaceable and priceless.
(from www.famteam.com)