I’ve always known that I’m in the minority. Have you ever witnessed a hunched-over teenager sporting pants that need hemming, belting, and a little patching (for the bargain price of my weekly grocery bill) and a scowl that in comparison makes Witch of the East look like The Good Witch? All in an effort to be different, he trades his birthright (and his money) for a little bowl of bland porridge. Mr. Teenager thinks he’s the cutting edge minority but neglects to notice that all the other kids in his class look just like him. No, I’m not in that minority. I mean that I am REALLY in the minority.

You will not hear the following statistics in the president’s upcoming State of the Union address, but you can find them in an article by Christopher Check in the January 2005 issue of Chronicles Magazine (you can also hear a more profound discourse on the subject at Buried Treasure Books):

From 1990 to 2002, the percentage of the adult population (18 and over) that is married has dropped from 61.9 percent to 58.9 percent. In 1960, 72 percent of the adult population was married.

Total fertility rate (TFR) has increased to 2.1 (just above replacement level), but 1/3 of births are out of wedlock, and marital fertility is below replacement level. As the median age of the population continues to rise, the TFR is expected to decline.

12 percent of all families in 1980 had 3 or more children. In 2002, it was 10 percent of all families. Nearly 1/4 of all families with three or more children are single-parent families. Only 3 percent of families have 4 or more children under age 18. More than half of all families have no children under the age of 18. When you use the word “family” to describe a mother, father and their minor children, that describes a minority of families today.

Of the approximately 30 million currently married women between 15 and 44, 41 percent have become surgically sterile, 19 percent use hormonal contraceptives and 17 percent use a device to prevent birth. People who do not use birth control or use natural family planning are less than 10 percent of this group.

Somewhere between 1-in-4 and 1-in-3 women alive today have had an abortion. [Amy here: I’m assuming this statistic includes chemical and morning-after pill abortions, “selective reduction” procedures and homicide in order to protect the unencumbered lifestyle-- er, the “health”-- of the mother.]

In 1970, 40 percent of married women were in the paid labor force. In 2002 it was 61 percent. Among women who have had a child in the last year, 58 percent are working. 56 percent of children ages 3-5 are in institutional daycare. Only 26 percent are cared for by their parents full-time at home. The percentage of children in higher income households who are in daycare is even higher: 62 percent from homes with an income in the $50,000 to $75,000 range; 75 percent from homes with incomes greater than $75,000.

One doesn’t need a crystal ball or even the gift of prophecy to observe these statistics are sobering and have profound implications for society. In addition to the above figures, it is also reported that the divorce rate among Christians is a little higher than among non-professing Christians. (Perhaps this is because those that claim to be Christians feel an obligation to marry instead of just shacking up until the next honey comes along.) But whatever the case, we are marching steadily on the Highway to Hell: living, eating, drinking, being merry, and enjoying our lives without being “encumbered by children.”

Carmon Friedrich sums it up nicely (you have to read it slowly): By following the philosophy of gathering rosebuds while ye may, many are getting left out in the cold when the seasons of life change, and the rosebuds disappear leaving just the cold, cold grounding of reality: loneliness and lost opportunity to plant and tend thriving gardens that will bloom for eternity.

Mother Teresa expressed, “How can there be too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers.” Cultivating children for the cause of Christ is work that will reap eternal rewards. I will stand before the Lord one day with my children next to me, not my spiffy house. Tending covenant children produces a fruit sweeter than apples picked at their peak. Hard labor? Yes. From Galatians 6, we are admonished:

7Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some weeds to pull.