 You will endure sleepless nights 24-hour shifts seven days a week sound good so far But wait, there's more for this grueling job You will not receive a salary in fact you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to do it when you put it like that I don't want that job. I don't know about you But I've been noticing more and more people talk about the problem of Population decline the fact that people aren't at least in Western culture having as many kids as they used to figures Like Elon Musk have been sounding the alarm taking it upon himself to have as many kids as they possibly can in Contrast there's been a growing trend that I've been seeing on TikTok of people called dinks That stands for dual income no kids These folks have been set on the fact that they're not gonna have kids at all And in fact they go to the extent some of them do go to the extent of trying to encourage other people to Not have kids as well calling them a burner and calling them a waste of money and all this kind of thing So today we're gonna respond to some of those videos and I'm gonna get into the biblical understanding of children and and how you know, is it a good thing to have kids? Is it okay to not have kids? How do we understand this apologies on the mustache today? We had a 70s themed birthday party on the weekend So that is the carryover it will be gone by the end of the week now under the video We're dinks go to cute coffee shops and Trader Joe's on the weekend. We can play with other kids and give them back Okay, you can go on 10 trips you can go to the coffee shops you want you can sleep in you don't have to take care of kids This seems like a really nice thing like on the surface like hey, okay, I want my life back I don't want to have anybody coming into it ruining my flow ruining the things that I want to do of course We'd love to have a little bit more money in the bank of course We'd love to go on more trips of course I'd love to sit in a coffee shop with my wife and not have to worry about a single thing So maybe the dink life for maybe the the child's free life is is the life for me. Let's let's carry on I used to be on the fence about having kids until I came across a book that pushed me over the edge from being a Fence sitter to child free. This is page 6 of the baby decision Do you want this child? Which I'm about to offer you if you accept it you will have to do it for 20 years Before you commit you are not allowed to try it out or even meet your boss or co-worker Consequently, you may have no idea if you will like the job or the person Nor will you know until you start it if you love it or hate it during the three months of your apprenticeship You will endure sleepless nights 24-hour shifts seven days a week sound good so far But wait, there's more for the scrolling job You will not receive a salary in fact you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to do it Oh, and there's also no cause for quitting at least for not the first 18 years Well, when you put it like that, I don't want that job And I'm not sure who in the right mind would would you want a job that you have to sign up for for a long time that you Don't really get any you know benefit from it just seems like a lot of work And you have to wake up early and expend all these resources time energy money it wears on your body So why would you want kids now? I don't want to downplay the fact that having kids And I don't have kids personally, but you know, I've I have a lot of friends that have kids and It's a hard thing right. It is a hard thing. It's work Absolutely, but I also want to show some attention to the reality that people often Overstate how difficult raising a child is okay. That's true. They can understate how how difficult is yeah For sure if you think it's just gonna be a walk in the park I've heard that that is not the case, but I've also had friends that say hey like it's challenging There's challenges to it and there's difficulties to it. Absolutely, but for me. I kind of equate it similarly to when me and my wife were getting married and We were engaged and we would go out with people couples too and they would say oh, you know marriage is so hard and You got to get ready for year two or year three because that's when it really gets bad Or you know, that's when you really got to work through some stuff and sure marriage is challenging in some ways. Absolutely But it's just giving you a false perspective of what it's what it is What we felt when we were getting married and maybe we'll make a video I'll make a video about this as well But we were like hey everyone is just poopooing this this marriage in general saying how hard it is and difficult It is and they're never highlighting the good parts They're never saying how fun it is to get to wake up next to the person that you love and your best friends with and they're never saying oh, you know what it's actually awesome to be able to Collaborate on different projects and things and have somebody that you can share your whole life with and and every intimate part of you Like that really wasn't what the focus was and similarly I think for having kids so many people focus on oh, it's so challenging It's so difficult. There's so much sacrifices and I'm sure that is true But they don't highlight the joy and the meaning and the purpose and the building of legacy and discipling your kid And how beautiful that is now these videos that we're seeing here coming from a non-christian perspective people that don't have a Focus on long-term discipleship of their children and seeing them as a blessing which we'll see later So I understand that outlook, but let's dig in more into why these folks really don't want kids Hey guys I want to pop in here real quick to let you know that I'm doing a live hangout with my patrons tomorrow That is Tuesday February 6th at 7 p.m Central time now if you want to join us join on any tier paid tier on Patreon and you can access to that stream We do these occasionally and they are a lot of fun You get access to bonus videos as well if you join on patreon as well as our discord looking forward to seeing you at the hangout and Back to the video. I am 34 years old and I have been married for nine years And my husband and I decided not to have kids because one of our core values is freedom Let me explain when my husband and I started dating We both fell in love with how independent we were and how Dedicated we were to our careers and our ambition and our purpose and our devotion to our own Individual happiness as time went on we saw a lot of our friends having kids and my siblings having kids and it Reinforced the decision of not having kids for us because we saw just how much it changes your lifestyle and My husband and I have an amazing life like we do whatever we want. We're seeing a pretty consistent theme here I don't want to have my freedom taken away from me. I don't want to have my resources taken away from me I don't want to be drained of these things. So if I can keep them for myself, then I'll be happier I'll be healthier of a better life in general. So why would I want kids? I think about marriage because that's kind of my connection point and how even in marriage You need to make sacrifices you need to if you want to get married like it's not just I'm going to get all this benefit and da da da da of course marriage is is so Life-giving and there's so many extra pluses to it and benefits of it But you are you need to make sacrifices. That's part of it. All of a sudden It's not just about what you want to do at any given moment or I want to take this job here I want to do this here. I want to spend my money this way or I want to live this kind of lifestyle It says okay I'm gonna take this other person into not only take them into account, but live literally every day out of Sacrifice for them and that's what we're called to in the Bible. Okay, and similarly having kids. Yeah, that's a sacrifice Absolutely, but we're no strangers to sacrifice. We sacrifice for the things that we find valuable What are we valuing in this moment and so many people value their own personal comfort and happiness over greater meaning? Press and ultimately following God and what he wants us to do now. I'm not saying everybody's gonna have kids That's not true Some people are infertile and in those situations. It's like, okay Hey, how are you gonna invest in the next generation in different ways? But ultimately if you don't have your life transformed by God, you're not gonna be looking to invest in the next generation You're going to look to how can I hoard what I have out of self-protection? That's I think the fear that so many people have these days if I have a child if I Give up what I have then I will be sad. I will be poor I will not have what I need that's giving me fulfillment and satisfaction because I'm looking to these things to give me fulfillment and satisfaction But for the Christian, how do we look at it? Okay? Well, we can go to a couple verses here. Let's go. Let's go Proverbs 17 6 says grandchildren are the crown of the aged and the glory of children is their fathers It is a crown to have grandchildren. It's a blessing. It's a good thing we go to Psalm 127 children are a heritage from the Lord the fruit of the womb is a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the Children of one's youth Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them I heard it said that children are not just purely blessings without condition, right? There are conditions to the fact that they are going to become blessings and that is the discipleship of them Are you training them in the way? They should go that when they're old they will not depart from it Are you instilling in them the truth of who God is and what the gospel is and what he desires and requires of us? Are those the things that you're pouring into your kids now a lot of people in the similar camp that I grew up in the homeschool conservative Camp and tradition a lot of those folks are obsessed with how many kids can I possibly have right or you know I'm gonna have tons and tons of kids and that's all gonna be a blessing The condition is are you actually raising those kids and discipling those kids that when they're old? They will be a blessing to you or are you raising them and just having kids because you think they're a blessing But you're not really pouring into their life now. So there's the two ditches. We're seeing here There's the ditch of saying I'm not gonna have any kids because I want to keep everything for myself And then there's another ditch of saying I'm gonna have tons of kids But yet you're really not doing the the raising of them justice You're not instilling in them what needs to be instilled and you're just seeing it as an opportunity Let me just have a lot of kids because that seems like a good thing according to the Bible. Well, let's hold on for a second The Bible doesn't give us any Any kind of realm or figure to play with in terms of how many kids we need to have okay? So that's not there. We know they're a blessing if you raise them according to God, right? Okay, that's good But yeah, we're seeing so many so many people that aren't Christians. They hate their burden They're waste of time. They really don't provide as much meaning and and and life satisfaction as we think that is They should compared to what we're pouring into them and some Christians we can say okay I kind of see the same thing. Maybe I'm not super interested in giving up my resources or or maybe I didn't have any good experience with kids growing up or I don't don't really feel like the nurturing type So what am I supposed to do? This is just my honest opinion. Like I'm not a pastor I'm just some guy on YouTube that tries to encourage people to follow God Here's the deal like I see kids as such a great opportunity to pour into them a love for God To raise disciples and evangelists and people that are going to share his gospel And also just building family legacy. That is so important to me You see so many broken families so many families that have been built on addiction and sin and Just generational sins that have persisted and persisted and persisted Having children and raising them in a way that is godly and is God glorifying as best that we can we can do that And reversing Some of those generational sins that have been consistent throughout your family. I think that is so beautiful That is so cool to me if you didn't have good parents. You can say hey these children. I'm gonna raise them differently I'm gonna raise them according to God. Maybe your parents were hypocrites I mean most of us are hypocrites, but maybe they were real big hypocrites You can say I'm actually gonna live out my faith for my kids I think of the the parable of the talents a guy with four talents or the most talents anyway He he doubles them and the guy with second most talents. He doubles them too and the guy with the least talents This is this money and he just buries in the ground He doesn't do anything with it because he's scared of losing it to me God has given you so much right and maybe you feel like man I couldn't I couldn't even afford having a kid or I'm not in the space to look I get I get that There's a place for responsibility and wisdom and discernment. All that is true But there's also a place of saying I'm going to invest what I have and Part of that is investing in the next generation. So hey, maybe you can't have kids or you're not able to have a kid right now How can you invest in the next generation? How can you pass on this godly legacy to maybe? It's not your immediate children blood children, but that next generation that is a part of the Christian walk That's an essential part of the Christian walk Look, I couldn't care less if I don't have 10 vacations in a year Or I don't get to go to you know a coffee shop on a Saturday morning for the rest of my life because I'm tending to my kids Like that is a huge blessing to me That's so exciting to be able to invest in them and do something of Eternal value Eternal having a kind of an eternal legacy in a way by investing into those lives I'd love to hear thoughts about this in the comments down below and be sure to subscribe if you haven't already Tune in tomorrow for another video and until next time. God bless