More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
MTM - Where Have All the Children Gone?
What if the choice to remain childless carries consequences far beyond personal decisions? Join us as we unpack the complex and often unexpected generational impacts of childlessness. We contrast the prevalent 'my body, my choice' philosophy with the biblical narrative of Mary, illustrating how choosing not to have children could lead to profound loneliness in later life. We discuss the alarming trend of millennials opting for pets over children, which is not just reshaping family dynamics but also contributing to a declining birth rate that jeopardizes the very fabric of future generations.
Through personal anecdotes, we share the unmatched joy and deep fulfillment of raising a large family, guided by the biblical principles found in Psalms 127. Let’s explore how materialism and secular views are steering millennials away from parenthood, prompting a shift in priorities from nurturing children to accumulating possessions. We emphasize the importance of creating a faith-based environment for raising children, encouraging grandparents to support their children’s parenting journeys through prayer and understanding rather than pressure. Tune in to discover how children are not just blessings but divine investments that yield immeasurable returns in love, wisdom, and connection.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, dr Robert Jackson, and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up, because the doctor is in.
Speaker 2:Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Many of you know that January is Sanctity of Human Life Month, and we try to remember the entire issue of the sanctity of human life. I want to put a phrase in your mind that I want you to remember throughout this message, and that is my body, my choice. That's the mantra of the pro-choice slash, pro-death movement my body, my choice. I want you to understand that. That is the diametrically opposite response that Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, gave when she was confronted with a message from an angel who told her that she would conceive and bear in her womb our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, if you will, to the message that the angel gave her when he said Do not be afraid, mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, david, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. And Mary said to the angel how can this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason, the holy child shall be called the Son of God. Well then, in a few verses more, mary said Behold the bond-slave of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Now there was no defiance in Mary, there was no selfishness. There was nothing about her that said this is my body, this is my choice. There was no self-absorbed selfishness that looked into her future and said this is not a part of my plan, but she merely decided to trust and obey. And I want you to keep all of that in mind as I go forward in this message. I want you to understand that bad ideas have long-term generational consequences. Let me say that again Bad ideas have long-term generational consequences. You've heard all your life that ideas have consequences, but bad ideas have long-term generational consequences, have long-term generational consequences.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes I ask my patients who is at home to take care of you. Now I'm specifically referring to my elderly patients. In fact, I had to ask one of my patients that just yesterday and his response was no one. And I said where are your children? And his response was I don't have any children, and I want you to understand that breaks my heart. Well, my elderly infirm patients have no children to help look after them.
Speaker 2:The lack of children to care for my elderly infirm patients is a serious problem for many of my senior citizen patients. Either they chose not to have children, or they married late, or they couldn't have children, and now it's causing them heartache, loneliness and there's no one to care for them in their illness and old age and all they can do is call 911 in their extremity. The other issue that hurts my heart is the increasing epidemic of millennials who choose pets over children. Their parents are my patients and their parents are brokenhearted that they have grand dogs but no grandchildren. They marvel and congratulate me that I have 18 grandchildren and one on the way. They rejoice with me, but I can see the sadness in their eyes that their children have rejected childbearing. There are no grandchildren in the future for them, no pitter-patter of little feet running in their house and no excited little voices crying out Nana, papa.
Speaker 2:Let me read you some stats that I recently saw. Grandparents in America are becoming more and more rare. In 2014, 60% of people over 50 had at least one grandchild. By 2021, 50 had at least one grandchild. By 2021, that had fallen to just over half. The historic decline in birth rate means that many who devoted their early lives to raising families will spend their later lives watching those families come to an end. The main reason for this is that many millennials the generation now entering middle age have chosen not to have children.
Speaker 2:What's the reason for all of this rejection of children and embracing of pets instead? Well, the answer is rather complex. One explanation is that millennials are viewing children as a financial liability rather than a long-term investment and a long-term blessing. Now, it's no doubt that children cost time and money, but the return on investment is love, affection, endless hugs and kisses, laughter and tears, intimate conversation and the opportunity to train a little person to become a responsible adult who looks and talks like you and eventually repeats the words of wisdom that you've taught them to their peers of wisdom that you've taught them to their peers and it causes you to well up with pride inside when you hear your grown-up child begin to teach their peers the things that you taught them.
Speaker 2:Now let me read you a word of Scripture. You knew I'd get to that eventually, didn't you Listen to Psalms 127. The psalmist said Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward Like arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate. Now I've had all manner of folks tease me about having nine children and I'm just telling you I've never been ashamed in the gate. When I show up and open the doors of the van and the kids just keep piling out, I'm telling you I've never been ashamed of having nine children. Either this scripture, this scripture passage in Psalms, is true or it's not true.
Speaker 2:Millennials have to make up their mind if they will believe God's word. There was a story told back in the late 1800s of a man who had 12 children and he was a middle-income sort of gentleman and he hosted a wealthy man who visited his home. When he came in the home he greeted the man and his wife and then he greeted all 12 of the children and he said oh my, these are they who make a rich man poor. The father of the 12 children looked at him and said Nay sir, these are they who make a rich man poor. The father of the twelve children looked at him and said Nay sir, these are they who make a poor man rich. You understand that children are a blessing from the Lord and when God gives children, god gives meat. God gives provision. God gives meat, god gives provision. When a man trusts in God to have a large number of children, god always provides for that man and his family, and God provides for the children.
Speaker 2:I think the second reason that millennials are choosing not to have children is because of materialism. Not to have children is because of materialism. Young people are choosing possessions over a posterity, no-transcript and nicer cars, overbearing children. They aren't usually willing to say it out loud, but children inhibit their ability to afford the house and the vehicles of their choices. The only problem is that these things will prevent them from having grandchildren for their parents and there will be no children to care for them when they are old and infirm. It's very short-sighted and it's a poor investment. Children are the best investment of all, especially if you spend quality time with them and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Now, what's the solution to this whole demographic issue? Well, let me just say a few words to you grandmas and grandpas out there who may have millennials who have chosen pets over a posterity, who have chosen not to have children. Begging and cajoling is not the answer. Brow beating will not work either. It will create distance between you and your children. Beating them over the head with the Bible is futile.
Speaker 2:The underlying issue is one of worldview. Understand that God is the one who said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That was his command to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. And then, after the worldwide flood, when it was just Noah, his three sons and their wives, he reissued that command to them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God never rescinded that command. And if your children have listened to the secular drivel from their public schools and other sources that says that our world is overpopulated and climate change is an issue and it's affected their worldview and their way of thinking that may influence them to think that they should not be bearing children, you see, that's a worldview issue. And if your millennial does not have a worldview vision of reaching the world for Jesus Christ through a generational impact, through the children that they bear and raising them to be world changers for Jesus Christ, then they will necessarily be self-absorbed and materialistic. That's the very opposite view of trust and obey. That view necessarily devolves into a my body, my choice kind of worldview. It's the exact opposite of the response of Mary when she said behold the bondservant of the Lord, let it be unto me, according to your word. You see, these are diametrically opposite perspectives on life.
Speaker 2:Every additional child that a parent bears causes more death to self and causes us to be more like Jesus Christ. You parents have understood that Every time you have another child, you have to give more of yourself to that child. It causes more death to self. You have to give yourself to those children. It takes money, it takes time, it takes death to self. And you know Jesus said take up your cross daily and follow me. If we would be his disciples. And children cause us to learn death to self. Every additional child is another arrow in your quiver. Additional child is another arrow in your quiver, an arrow that one day, when they are grown, you will be able to shoot out of your bow into the world as another little soldier of the cross, another soldier that you have trained to be like the master that you have sent out to be a world changer.
Speaker 2:Your only option, grandma and grandpa to be, is fasting and praying until Holy Spirit opens their eyes to see the truth. And let me give you a word of encouragement your praying is stronger than their sinning. Let me say that again. Your praying is stronger than their selfishness, than their self-deception, than their sinning. Your praying is stronger. Now you may have to fast and pray. You may have to repent and pray. You have to do whatever it takes for you to be the priest in the family, a pure-hearted priest in the family. But I'm convinced that God hears the pure-hearted prayer, the persistent, pure-hearted prayer of parents. And you have to be the priest in the family and I'm convinced that the prayers of parents, the pure-hearted, persistent prayer of parents, will win the day.
Speaker 2:You cannot debate or argue your children into obedience to God. You can only pray them into obedience to God. You can only pray that Holy Spirit will open wide the door of their heart, open wide their minds to see and understand, and that Holy Spirit will bring them into compliance with the Word of God. I am not the Holy Spirit. You are not the Holy Spirit. I can't Listen. I can't even change my wife's mind about anything. What makes you think you can change your children's mind about anything?
Speaker 2:Once they're adults, you have to trust Holy Spirit to help them see, understand and obey. You must become a prayer warrior on behalf of your adult children and you pray that they will understand that child bearing is biblical and obedient and that being barren plays into the hand of the enemy, who came to steal and kill and destroy. Bearing children is the very opposite of what Satan desires. He's the one who killed all the little children in Egypt land when he was trying to destroy Moses and all the little Hebrew boys in Egypt land. He was the one who killed all the Hebrew children in Bethlehem when he was trying to kill all the little boys under two years old when Jesus was born. He is the one who loves abortion, who loves the killing of unborn children. He is the one who delights that parents choose not to have children. It plays right into the hands of the enemy. God is the one who said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Being barren plays into the hands of the enemy.
Speaker 2:Proliferating is being pro-life, and pray that your children will see that raising godly offspring helps to expand the kingdom of God and multiplies our influence for God for generations to come. I told you in the beginning that bad ideas will have a negative influence and a negative generational impact. On the other hand, good ideas, godly ideas, have a positive impact and a positive generational impact for generations to come. Having children that we raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, sending out godly soldiers into the kingdom of God, will have a positive generational impact for the kingdom of God. Raising godly offspring helps to expand the kingdom of God and it multiplies your and my influence for generations to come.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you a story before I leave you. Some years ago a friend of mine named Flip Benham he was involved in pro-life work was in Washington DC at a pro-life rally and he was being interviewed by a newspaper or television reporter and there were cameras there and he was standing in a circle with five women from the National Organization of Women, which is a pro-choice organization, and he had five or six men with him who were with his pro-life organization and the newspaper reporter looked at him and he said Mr Benham, what makes you so confident that your side will win? And he laughed. And he looked at the newspaper reporter and he said the television reporter. And he said I'll show you how I know we will win. And he looked at the newspaper reporter and he said the television reporter. And he said I'll show you how I know we will win.
Speaker 2:And he looked at the women from the National Organization of Women and he said how many children do you have? And the first lady said one. And he said how many do you have? She said none. The next one said none, the next one said one and the next one said none. So he looked at his friends and he said how many children do you have? And the guy said nine, the second one said five, the next one said seven, the next one said 12. And then Mr Benham said I have five. And he looked at the newspaper report and he said sir, in one generation we will vote all of these women out of office and our influence will triumph. And then all the guys with him started clapping and the ladies that were at the National Organization of Women just ducked their head and looked at their shoes.
Speaker 2:Bearing children is God's way for you and me to have a generational impact for the kingdom of God for generations to come. And you know those men were raising their children to be godly influences. Well, grandma and grandpa, pray that your children will catch a vision, a biblical worldview of the importance of bearing children and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and one day shooting those little children, those little arrows that are in their quiver, out into the world to be an influence for the Lord, jesus Christ. Now let me conclude by saying this I read an article recently by John Stonestreet and he was talking about this very issue, and he said that Christians should also witness to a countercultural way of life, including a positive perspective on children. At least we can make sure that the children know that they're not burdens or accessories, that they bring joy and that we hope, lord willing, the same joy may one day find them.
Speaker 2:Talking about our children who are unwilling to bear us grandchildren. None of this by itself will turn our demographic future around. None of this by itself will turn our demographic future around. But until it's once again okay to look forward to seeing our children's children, there won't be much of a demographic future in the first place, and he's right about that. We need to be praying, brothers and sisters. Pray for our millennials who do not have a biblical worldview and do not understand the importance of bearing children and the joy of bearing children. Well, you're listening to More Than Medicine and I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson. I pray that you'll have a very good week, that you'll be with me again next week. Until then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
