Okay, so we’re on chapter 7 – Lies Women Believe about Children. If you’re single, please do not skip over this lie. As I’ve mentioned earlier, getting a firm foundation of your beliefs as a single woman will equip you to stand firm in them when you get into a serious relationship. If you missed a week or a handout, you can get all of them here.
Download the handout here –>Lies Women Believe About Children Chapter 7 Chart
For a while now I’ve had a post written and sitting in my “drafts” box waiting to be published. Every time I think about publishing it, however, my heart beats fast and my hands shake. I wholeheartedly believe in the post, and I think it’s one that other Christian women need to read, but it’s controversial to say the least. It’s about birth control and goes along with the first lie in this chapter – “It’s up to us to determine the size of our family.”
Here are a list of the other lies in chapter seven:
- Children need to get exposed to the “real world” so that they can learn to function in it.
- All children will go through a rebellious stage.
- I know my child is a Christian because he prayed to receive Christ at an early age.
- We are not responsible for how our children turn out.
Maybe in the next few weeks I will get up the nerve to publish my initial thoughts on the subject of family size and birth control, but until then let me tell you a story.
I first read Lies Women Believe in 2002. I was 26 years old and single. I don’t remember this chapter making much of an impact on my life probably because these lies were not a part of my present day issues. However, it made a huge difference my friend and mentor from church.
My friend was older than me. I’m guessing in her early to middle thirties. She had been married for a while and had two girls. They were both in early elementary school. There was no talk of her adding more children to her family. It seemed that they were content as a family of four. That is until she read this book.
One day we met for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. She told me that she was pregnant. Even though the baby was planned, she was surprised because she had used an IUD as a form of birth control for years and using those makes it harder to get pregnant.
When she told me the news I was surprised, too, only because her youngest daughter was in school. Also, the other ladies from church, with children the same age, seemed to be finished with having babies. I wondered why my friend waited this long to have another one.
I don’t remember asking her, but for some reason she told me that she read this book called Lies Women Believe. There was a chapter about planning the size of your family, and she felt convicted by it. And so there was a third baby.
Here are some thoughts from Nancy Leigh DeMoss that most likely led my friend to her decision to have another baby. And just so you know, she didn’t have any more babies after that. I can’t tell you I know the reason, but the point I want to make is that just because you trust God with the size of your family doesn’t mean you’re going to end up with 19 kids. She didn’t.
“As a destroyer of life, Satan is definitely not into encouraging childbearing. Every child that is born has the potential to thwart his purposes by receiving God’s grace and becoming a subject of the kingdom of God. So anything that hinders or discourages women from fulfilling their God-given calling to be bearers and nurturers of life furthers Satan’s efforts. Abortion, infanticide, and homosexuality are examples of life-destroying practices that have become widely tolerated throughout our culture. Bible-believing Christians are generally quick to refute such blatantly evil practices. However, the evangelical world – including many outspoken ‘pro-lifers’ – has come to accept a number of philosophies and practices that are subtly ‘anitchildren’ and ‘antlife’. One of the fundamental tenets of feminist ideology has always been the right of a woman to determine for herself if and when she will have children and how many children she will have. The Christian world has been unwittingly influenced by this way of thinking, leading to the legitimization and promotion of such practices as contraception, sterilization, and ‘family planning.’ As a result, unwittingly, millions of Christian women and couples have helped to further Satan’s attempts to limit human reproduction and thereby destroy life.” (Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Lies Women Believe, p. 169)
Do you struggle with believing any of these lies about children? What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment!
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