Is it possible to multiply and replenish the earth without having children of your own? Also it is a commandment to sealed couples, right, but could single members of the church attempt such a thing? Or would that be a silly thing to attempt without a spouse?
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I can't have physical kids (and if I had a nickel for every time I started a thread response with that phrase, I would have quite a few dollars. So please forgive me.), but I think I can still 'multiply and replenish the earth'. Actually, I don't know about the 'multiply' thing, but in the terms of righteous posterity I can definitely 'replenish' through adoption, by putting people of integrity and virtue back into the system, my children who can add to the good in the earth rather than steal from it.
What does this statement mean. I know some members that say this means you have 20 kids and that by not doing that we are somehow sinning. My wife's current situation makes having anymore children very risky to her health. She had to be rehospitalized after the last child and is still having problems. But since she could probably concieve and carry to term a child does that mean we are obligated to do it even though there is a real chance of her having serious health problems, requiring major surgery, and possibly death? Obviously, having one child only when you are capable of having more is probably not meeting the definition of replenishing the earth but how many is enough to satisfy the commandment?
I think the commandment "multiply and replenish the earth" can be taken different ways. I also think its possible that the commandment does not apply to everyone. Otherwise why would there be people who cannot physically have children like Dyany or people who may or may not have anymore like possibly Jason's wife? Or how about people who may never have the opportunity to get married in this life? And what about people who adopt children? Aren't they satisfying that commandment the only way they can? Sure single people can go out and adopt a child or get artificially inseminated if they don't have any prospects of getting married. I'm certainly not one who would want to deny a person the opportunity to become a parent. But, one would have to seriously consider if its the right thing to do. Sure, it can be done and people certainly do it, but I don't necessarily believe it's a good thing. Children were meant to have two parents not one. I'm sure I would get blasted up and one side down the other by alot of single parents in the world, but its a fact. You may think that the other side of the equation was "just an egg donor or sperm donor" but ultimately those donors still have to "parent" the offspring. One way or another it takes a man and a woman to create a child whether one or the other sticks around or not is a whole other issue.
Within the first six months Cat and I were married we had a young new mother who decided that everyone should have a baby! Every chance she got she would hold her new little bundle up to me and say "You should tell your husband to give you a baby!" "Don't you want one of these?" It drove us nuts. She was a young japanese girl so we gave her some leeway. Otherwise we would have told anyone else to back off.
That's an interesting question... how many, and when? I think there used to be talk by the Brethren like you should not put off having kids for things like education or college. I don't hear that so much now because I think it's helped the living paycheck to paycheck and bankruptcy problem to thrive. Who knows?
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
sad thing is, there are LOTS of unwanted babies out there and LOTS of people who want them. Trouble is, our society discourages adoption (doctors aren't even allowed to bring that up as an option unless the person specifically asks) and they make it ridiculously expensive to adopt, especially internationally.
I think it gets to people doing the best they can to live whatever commandments exist.
Not to trivialize but one idea is when we (singles or those w/o kids) buy gifts, etc for new babies or the children of other people, we are supporting them in their role as a parent. Teaching in a primary class, we are helping support those who have kids- gosh, instead of being a swinging single in a bar (which sounds awful), I am happy to spend that time helping prepare for activity days or my primary class, etc
In my job as a geriatric OT, I work w/people in their 70s-90s and sometimes older. So I am helping take care of someone else's child, a few decades down the road.
Hopefully I will someday get my own child. And hopefully due to the care I give to the children of others, someone else will help take care of those children (if I ever have one) or my nieces/nephews, etc
To me this also involves supporting/respecting those who have children when not married, etc for the value they give to life, in having a child, in that they chose not to have an abortion, etc. To be edited out in a couple days: ( a lesson learned a few years ago when someone I love a lot had an abortion, and had I known this person was expecting I would have intervened and done whatever I could have done to prevent that decison, as I love that person and would have loved to have raised that child).
For awhile I felt somewhat self-conscious about the space between the births of my children. There's 4.25 yrs between the first and second and then 3.5 betwee the second and third. This bothered me because I felt like people at church might have expectations or make assumptions that it had to do with my husband not being a member. I'm mostly over that now, but I'm not sure how or when that change occurred. I did what I could do. There were reasons, but it really isn't anybody's else's concern. I came to peace with my choices. I'm accepting of Heavenly Father's will and that of my husband. Thankfully, those aren't in opposition.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton