Can't Afford to Have Children?

By Crystal Paine

Hi, Becky!

Great question. I, too, hear many people say that they can't afford to have children yet or that they aren't "ready" for children. And how sad this makes me. What joys these people are purposefully depriving themselves of. They are choosing to miss out on one of God's greatest blessings -- and they don't even know what they are missing out on!

I have seen God do so many great and mighty things on our behalf. It is almost mind-boggling! He truly has done "exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think." And the glory alone goes to Him.

So many people say they aren't "ready" to have children. Who defines "ready"? I personally do not think anyone should get married until they are ready to have children. If you are not ready to have children, you are not ready to get married.

God will never give you anything you cannot handle. If you entrust your family size into His all-knowing, all-wise hands, He will give you just exactly the number of children you need, in His timing. And, He will supply everything you need to properly care for and raise those children. I think we so often limit God by putting Him into our man-made timetable.

Doing things God's way rather than relying upon our own understanding is so much better. I know because I've seen it in my own life. If anyone had looked at our budget and standard of living before we had Kathrynne, you can be assured that they would have told us we weren't "ready" to have children. After all, many months we lived on less than $1,000 (and much of that was going towards our housing rent). We certainly did not have excess money. But, God was faithful to provide for our needs and we didn't have anything to complain about.

Inspite of our meager income, we had purposed to welcome any and all children God would give to us, whenever He chose to give them to us. We struggled with infertility for the first 15 months of our marriage -- we longed for children and were earnestly beseeching the Lord for them. Of course, there were times when I wondered how we would afford to pay for the costs of actually having a baby if I did get pregnant, but I sought to leave that in God's hands.

When we found out we were expecting, we were so thrilled. What joy flooded our hearts! We knew that this baby was from the Lord and He would provide for our needs. And what an incredible job God has done!

Just few examples of God's provision for us:

I wondered how we would afford maternity clothes. I prayed and asked the Lord and He prompted five different people to send me a box of maternity clothes or buy maternity clothes for me. I ended up with some very nice, name-brand maternity clothes -- all which I got for free.

We wondered how we would pay for the birth. We prayed and God allowed our student insurance to cover the majority of the birthing center costs (By the way, using a birthing center or having a home birth will save you a lot of money -- our total costs for everything including all prenatal and postnatal care and birthing classes was about $3200 before insurance.). A few months after Kathrynne's birth, we received a check in the mail from someone who said God had prompted them to send it to pay for the rest of Kathrynne's birth costs. We also received a check from our church and a few other individuals. God took care of the birth costs over and above what they were.

I wondered how we would afford all the necessary baby items. We prayed and God provided. We ended up having three showers (I didn't think we'd have any since we don't have a lot of friends in the town we live in) and receiving gifts from people all over the world -- many of whom we didn't even hardly know! We have received hundreds of gifts beyond the essential items -- so many items that we were able to pass on many things to other needy families. Four families gave us practically their entire collection of girl's clothes from newborn to 3T! We have boxes of clothes in our closet for Kathrynne for the next two years -- and it was only recently that we went out and bought her anything.

I could go on and on and share story after story of how God has provided for us since Kathrynne has been born. We have been blessed beyond measure.

One thing that I have learned is that God doesn't often provide grace for tomorrow. He provides grace for today. Before I got pregnant, we didn't need maternity clothes, baby things, or more income. But, when we needed those things, God has provided.

We serve a big God. If He's big enough to provide for me, He's big enough to provide for you. You just have to step out in faith and trust Him!

For more encouragement, click here to read something I wrote awhile back on a similar subject. -Crystal