Children are a blessing

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Daddy is blessed...

Just received this pic along with an e-mail of thanks for writing Daddy Tried. Ain't she beautiful? I'd tell you her name but I want to protect her own and her parents' privacy. Congratulations to the proud father and joyful mother!

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. (Psalms 127:3)


Education is evangelization—always and forever...

In response to this post, one FB reader asked, "Can you elaborate on the transition in the middle of this article?"

I responded: Thanks for the question... I say the battle for freedom in raising our children is almost the only battle worth fighting because commanding our children to do righteousness and keep the way of the Lord is at least half of obedience to the Great Commission. We talk about evangelism and being missional and overseas missionaries and witnessing and such-like because it's much more glamorous than the hard work of fatherhood and motherhood. We can claim we're doing random acts of kindness and being unselfish when we give our time or money to foreign missions while giving our time or money to raising up a godly seed is said to be entirely selfish. 

But taking a wild guess, I'd say...


The good father; Lighthouse Christian Academy and the education of our children...

Yesterday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee where she was hounded by Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.).

Rep. Clark trotted out the case of Lighthouse Christian Academy here in Bloomington 1 which states publicly on its website their Christian commitment to honoring God by teaching the sinfulness of "homosexual or bisexual activity or any form of sexual immorality (Romans 1:21-27; I Corinthians 6:9-20)" as well as the practicing of "alternate gender identity or any other identity or behavior that violates God’s ordained distinctions between the two sexes, male and female (Genesis 1:26-27; Deuteronomy 22:5)." 2

Knowing no one was going to defend God or this policy...


Bill Nye wants to sacrifice children for his Earth Goddess...

It's long been evident to me, at least, that greens and Scientism's Calamity Janes will get government to take reproduction in-house, granting some the right to bear children and forbidding others. At first parents like my own who had bad genes that passed on cystic fibrosis and hemophilia will be told "no." Dad wrote the novel Winterflight with this premise as its plot. The book was published back in the late seventies and if you haven't read it, you should.

In time, the justification won't be the cost of healthcare and eugenics, but a one or two-child policy similar to the one China is trying to leave behind. Our policy will only differ from China in that we won't be able to justify it by saying there's not enough food. There always will be...


A tribute to my mother-in-law, Margaret Louise Taylor, on her one-hundredth birthday...

Note: Three days ago was the one-hundredth birthday of my dear mother-in-law, Margaret Louise Taylor. This past weekend, Mary Lee and I gathered with Mary Lee's nine siblings and their spouses, as well as Mom's brother-in-law and his wife, Lyman and J. Mae Taylor, to celebrate this wonderful occasion.1 

It would be hard to overstate the blessing Mom Taylor has been to all of us for many decades, now. Twenty years ago, thinking about Mom Taylor and my own mother, Mary Louise Bayly (who at the time was still living), I wrote this article as a tribute to them both. Now is a good opportunity to reproduce it as a hundredth birthday tribute to Mom. I hope it serves as a good reminder to readers of the true nature of biblical femininity, womanhood, and motherhood. Of truly sacrificial Christian faith.

* * *

Mom Taylor studied for her degree in Home Economics during the late '30s and early '40s, graduating summa cum laude from Oregon State University. After marrying her childhood sweetheart, Ken Taylor, she gave birth to ten children in fourteen years.

Engaged for most of the years when the family was young as editorial director of a religious publishing house, her husband, Ken, brought home low wages, so frugality was a necessity and the degree served this young mother and her family very well...


Teddy Roosevelt on motherhood...

In the past few years, several longtime friends—one a nephew on the Taylor side of the family, another a stay-at-home mother and member of Clearnote Indy, and the third a politician running for a congressional seat outside Philly—have each recommended Teddy Roosevelt as good for what ails America. Here's a speech President Roosevelt gave in Washington D.C. to the National Congress of Mothers a century ago.

Times have changed. If you need an incentive to read on:

If you mothers through weakness bring up your sons to be selfish and to think only of themselves, you will be responsible for much sadness among the women who are to be their wives in the future...

No piled-up wealth, no splendor of material growth, no brilliance of artistic development, will permanently avail any people unless its home life is healthy, unless the average man possesses honesty, courage, common sense, and decency, unless he works hard and is willing at need to fight hard...

The speech...


The good father: your child has no sexual orientation...

Last time, I wrote of the importance of your child's sex. At the moment of conception, God called your child to live his life obedient and faithful to whom God made him. Whom God made him was either man or woman. God has never given anyone a "sexual orientation." God did not make your son or daughter "gay." Everything else flows from God's decree of male and female assigned at the moment of conception.

If God decreed your child to be male, your son is to spend his life demonstrating his love and submission to the manhood out of which every part of his personhood has its origin. Today, we can't say it often enough: "from the beginning God made them male and female" (Matthew 19:4).

This is the truth placed in the womb of your wife before she had any clue she was...


The good father: the fearful romance of marriage and children...

At first, just the weight of responsibility of marriage is overwhelming. I remember waking up the second night of our honeymoon, looking at my dear Mary Lee sleeping next to me, and thinking "the rest of my life!"

Other than following Jesus, I'd never before consciously made a decision about the rest of my life. But now I'd said my vows and I would be responsible to care for my bride and the children God chose to bless us with, and there would be no running. No getting out of it unless I was willing to face the wrath of God and suffer shame before everyone who loved us.

So I lay there thinking to myself... 


The loss of a precious child...

Fr. Bill Mouser is one of my heroes. He's an odd bird, no doubt. God has shown me that sanctification always produces greater oddities in saints. Never greater conformity. Barbara loves her husband and it would be hard to find a Priscilla/Aquila married couple today who have done better work strengthening the church against the greatest heresy of our day, the repudiation and denial of the Fatherhood of God.

Some years back, Fr. Bill and his dear Barbara suffered the loss of their little daughter, Francesca. I've heard snippets through the years about their loss. Recently I asked Fr. Bill to write a little bit more for us. Here it is from the kindness and generosity of his heart. I trust you will be strengthened reading it, as I was.

* * *

When my eight-year old daughter Francesca (hereafter "Cheska") was diagnosed with an inoperable brainstem tumor on January 9, 1996, we knew two things...


Hot fun in the summertime...

Doug and I took some of the grandchildren out for ice cream last night. We gave them the choice of where to go and they chose Yoho General Store in Solsberry. (It's on the way to Tulip Tree Trestle, our favorite local landmark.) The kids sat on the stairs and handrail out on front of the store licking and slurping, and you can see we had fun.

I texted this pic to Justus's uncle, who responded, "Messi."


Children are a blessing from the Lord: Emmeline Kate Bayly...

I'm not keeping up with announcing the joy of new grandchildren given us by God. Yesterday, Emmeline Kate Bayly was born to Reze Bayly, wife of Taylor Bayly.

Mother and baby are doing well. We thank God for Emmeline's safe delivery and His kindness to us in our celebration of Mom Taylor's 99th birthday this weekend.

Mom Taylor had ten children, all of whom gathered for the celebration of her birthday with almost all the spouses, also. Those ten children had twenty-eight children of their own, and those grandchildren have had, so far, about 75 of their own children. So Emmeline is something like Mom Taylor's 75th great-grandchild.

What blessings of fruitfulness God has given Mom! What joy she and all these hordes and scads of children are to us!


The First Great Commission...

The first things of Scripture will be the first things of godliness until the last things bring us Home. What are those first things?

Read the Bible's record of the beginning. In Genesis God lays out His command for the species He names "adam" (translated "man" in most English Bibles). He commands adam to be...


An early Valentine for your wife...

Daniel Meyer provided the link to this Millennial emoting about how his marriage is so good that he and his wife decided they'd keep their love for themselves. That's not exactly what he said, but reading between the lines, you know that's what it all adds up two. Not three.

Here's some of the man's public airing of his and his wife's dirty laundry:

On the eve of the procedure [his vasectomy], there was a sense of anxiety around the house. Not just mine, knowing I was about to undergo a bit of trauma in an area I'd heretofore protected so vigilantly. There was something else. This sense between Amy and me of, for lack of a better word, loss. We didn't have children. And we weren't going to. Ever. It was a serious thing, this. And serious things tend to touch our deepest emotions.

We both got a little sad. A little weepy. My wife, through a few tears, said the sweetest thing. "I know some people have kids because they want to see themselves in their children. But I would have wanted to see you."

Spare me. Why do Millennials take their most shameful private moments and broadcast them to millions? All previous generations of men and women grieved over their...


May you see your children's children...

Indeed, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!  - Psalms 128:6

We spent a week celebrating Christmas and New Years with our chilluns and their chilluns.

What joy!

Please humor me by allowing a post of a pic of my beautiful Mary Lee holding our precious granddaughter, Mary Louise Weeks, named for her maternal grandmother, Mary Louise Bayly. Mary Lee is joined by nineteen grandsons and granddaughters. As the pictures were being taken, Fiona Bayly never stopped crying, but you can see that Josiah handled her with aplomb.

My brother and sister-in-law, David and Cheryl Bayly, along with our sister, Deborah Bayly, and four of David and Cheryl's five children and their grandchildren came for dinner and an evening. Here's a pic that...


Calvin College's dirty marketing campaign...

Driving up to the Home Depot in Benton Harbor the other day, I passed a billboard. At 70 MPH, I had just enough time to read the come-on, take a look at the picture, and note the brand.

The come-on was "You were made to renew." The pic filling the center of the billboard was of three or four college-age men and women standing in a tight circle engaged in some sort of religious ritual. One of them was kneeling while the others peered into his devotional life sending affirming and supportive vibes cascading down upon him. The object of their devotion wasn't clear, but my quick glance left me with the impression that the man kneeling was holding dirt. I'm assuming the point of the billboard was to communicate to people driving northward on I-94 that man's chief end is to renew creation, starting with dirt.

The whole thing was an ad for Calvin College, so I'm guessing Calvin's mission statement has something in it about renewing creation. Or dirt.

If you go over to their website, you'll find this under "Calvin's Identity"...


Don't have any more children...

Got an e-mail today from a guy who's spent considerable time putting together arguments for Mother Earth being relieved of the masses of men she's currently supporting. The author wrote to say he'd quoted me. Reading his book feels like peering into a monkey cage.

He describes his work: 

[This book] investigates an extreme fringe of U.S. Protestantism ...that use Old Testament "fruitful" verses to support natalist ideas explicitly promoting higher fecundity.

...This book argues that natalism is inappropriate as a Christian application of Scripture, especially since rich populations’ total footprints are detrimental to biodiversity and to human welfare. 

Yes yes, biodiversity...


To the fearful would-be mother...

[My wife, Mary Lee, forwarded this to me and I asked the writer, Mrs. Lucas (Hannah) Weeks, for permission to post it here—which she kindly granted.]

You recently mentioned your fear associated with many aspects of motherhood. It seems that these fears are a major factor in your decision to put off the big leap, as well they might. But may I be so bold as to encourage you to take a new perspective on those fears, although I am a mere acquaintance?

I write "from the trenches” as they say. As a mother of five children six and under, including an infant with special needs, I could hardly be more qualified to address your fears. However, after a year of trials with our newest addition, my observations are bound to be a bit raw. The thing is, I don’t intend to assuage your fears. You might say my goal is to help you embrace them.

There are lots of women who would be happy to tell you all the beautiful things about motherhood. In fact, when you walk through the grocery store with a baby in a cart, you’re bound to be stopped by an older woman who tells you to, “enjoy it, it’ll be over before you know it.” They’re very sweet, and certainly well-meaning. And it really is a good reminder. But the truth is that, generally, the passage of time has given a golden cast to the years when they were raising their own children and they don’t remember (or don’t realize) that the best attributes of their character were molded, not by the days of bliss they seem to remember now, but by sleepless nights, worry-filled days, and the weight of constant care they carried for the little ones they raised. 

And then there’s another type of woman you’ll meet...


Faith and sex...

It would be good to do a study of the birth rates and sex ratios among Christians who are members of China's house churches. There is a strong positive correlation between religious piety and fertility, especially among Christians. Women and men of Christian faith don't choose cars, houses, investments, vacation homes, or "a good education" over God's blessing of a house full of children.

Where is Christian faith more proven and denied than sexuality? What requires more faith than the fruitful marriage bed, pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, and fatherhood?


China's single men: 32,000,000 and counting...

(CORRECTION: The 32 million was back in 2005. By now it's probable the number is around 45 million.)

The amendment of China's one-child to a two-child policy isn't likely to improve their ratios of old to young or men to women. Stuart Gietel-Basten, Associate Professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford, writes:

...questions will undoubtedly be asked about the legacy of the one-child policy. While its likely role in driving down fertility has probably been overstated, its role in shaping the highly skewed ratio of boys born compared to girls is widely considered to have been significant. In 2005 there were 32m more men under the age of 20 than women in China.

...What is the likely psychological impact of 35 years of constant messaging extolling the benefits of one-child families? And how is that internalised? We shall see.

Looking elsewhere in Asia, though, the Chinese government may find that it is much easier to “encourage” people to have fewer children than to have more.

Gietel-Basten links to a study exploring the connection between China's one-child policy, its sex ratio, and abortion...


After slaughtering at least a billion babies, China goes from one-child to two-child policy...

China's one-child policy is being abandoned, but not for reproductive choice or freedom. Rather, for a two-child policy.

China's one-child policy has been responsible for the slaughter of at least 350,000,000 little babies, surgically. Add in chemical and IUD abortions and the death toll is certainly far above a billion. Changing the limit from one to two children will not stop the forced abortions, but they will decrease and that's good news. Wonderful news!

More children are also necessary if China wants to avoid drowning in pensioners.

Check out the tweets responding to China Xinhua News' announcement, including this one: "Imagine aborting your child yesterday." Others guess how long it will take China to get back to parity between the sexes.