Philosophy on Having a Large Family

Leslie and I were married in March of 1979, and our first child was born April, 1985. Since then we've had a child every two years, for six more children in a row. Then, an absence of new borns until seven years later, when our daughter was born in 2004. Our first child was conceived while we were still on birth-control, as we'd been since the day we were married. But after our first child was born the local Baptist church came by, and to make a long story short, they gave us a book titled "The Home" by Dr. John R. Rice. Again, to keep the story short, I read it and was very much moved by the author's clear scriptural reasons for having a large family and its many advantages. My wife read it too and we both agreed with the author's conclusions. This had never been taught to us, but the undeniable scriptures were what convinced us. For me, to be a Christian means being a Christian in all areas. Once this truth was brought to my attention, we set our course and have not looked back. At that point we discarded our birth-control devices and have not used them since.

Results of This Philosophy

We have eight children. We love them all and can't imagine not having them around. They play with each other and love each other. We do everything together, including bike riding, camping, motor-home trips (two cross country trips to date - we've gone to all 48 contiguous states), church life, homeschool, you name it. God has provided, as he said he would, and I'm a very, very happy father.

Note: We do not impose our scriptural understanding regarding having a large family on anyone else. Factors in our favor was both my wife and I being in agreement on a large family, and she carries children very well; she's never had a difficult pregnancy and we haven't miscarried. These factors greatly facilitated our ability to have a large family. One negative is that most comments we get regarding having a large family from both our own family and friends are negative ("Don't you know what causes that?" "Save some resources for others," "What's the matter with you?"). But we brush them off; the results speak for themselves.