(I wish I could count how many married couples have expressed their regret to me over having made the decision to wait to have children. When they finally did decide, too many found infertility awaiting them. Below, is a brief testimony from one of my online students who is enrolled in the course “Family Counseling & Parenting Skills.”)
It is a blessing to read. I had never fully thought through some of the most important concepts of child conception presented in this chapter [in "God, Marriage, and Family" by Andreas Kostenberger]. Having recently struggled with infertility as a couple, my wife and I found ourselves with a tremendous desire for children and overjoyed when God graciously allowed us to become pregnant with twins. Now, in anticipation of fatherhood, I ask myself, “Why would anyone want to wait to have children?” Remembering back to the early days and years of our marriage, I recall feeling unprepared for children, in pride and selfishness wanting to wait until we were married a few years more until we should have children, and laughing at those who had children in the first year or two of their marriage because “they barely know each other.” This chapter not only helped me wrestle with these thoughts, but also has helped me get a better grasp on the procreation-command for marriage, the importance of a higher level of maturity at the point of marriage, and the call we as Christians have to declare the sanctity of life to a lost world.