Is there a "right" time to have a baby?

1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.[a] 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Genesis 21: 1-7 (ESV) 

Hello friends, welcome back to Tulips and Basil!

Today we're chatting the difference between cultural childbearing and biblical childbearing. In Genesis 21, we see that Sarah and Abraham have a child in their old age. Sarah says everyone who hears will laugh over her, and a footnote in my study Bible says that one interpretation may be that her neighbors will mock her as she bears and raises a child in a more advanced age than was "normal."

I'm not sure how I feel about that interpretation, but it did get me thinking! In Western culture, we tend to frown upon folks who have babies too soon or too late. We seem to have collectively decided that couples should have children within a small span of years. We have strong ideas about the wisdom, safety, and comfort of having children outside of those years.

Have kids too soon and you've missed out on your youth. That was the time you were supposed to spend traveling the world, growing your career, and enjoying life.

Have kids too late and you're asking for misery when you're tending to children or attending college graduation long after everyone else around you has kissed those stages goodbye.

We scan tend to see the bearing and raising of children through a selfish lens. Kids need to fit into our plans, our schedules, and only exist during the years that most assure we'll be comfortable for as long as possible. If you've read any of my other posts, you may know how I feel about comfortable Christians. If you haven't, I'll fill you in - I think Christians keeping themselves comfortable are missing out on the spiritual growth and transformation that occurs during difficult seasons of life.

Those difficult seasons include bearing and raising children during years our neighbors would scoff at. An idea that I've been mulling over is this: if God leaves a woman fertile, it isn't a bad time to have a baby. 

I think this idea could use some refinement. I can see how girls who start their menstrual cycles very young wouldn't fall under this ideological umbrella. That instance alone is enough to make me pause and continue to work through what I truly feel as far as fertility and babies, but I do think a few things for certain:

If you're blessed with a "geriatric" pregnancy and are having a baby later than your neighbors, God saw fit to bless you and He'll see you through whatever the future may hold.

If you're blessed with babies in your early twenties, God saw fit to bless you and He'll see you through whatever the future may hold.

If you're blessed with multiple babies in a short time span, as opposed to waiting a few years between little ones, God saw fit to bless you and He'll see you through whatever the future may hold.

Biblical childbearing and child-rearing doesn't happen between the ages of 26 and 33. Biblical childbearing happens at any age God sees fit to give you a baby, and biblical child-rearing will follow in the years after that, no matter how old you are.

All the love,

Emily

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