{"id":913,"date":"2011-02-09T03:51:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T03:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/"},"modified":"2015-09-11T15:01:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T19:01:34","slug":"paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Paradigm #1: Purpose for Having Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Great Bible scholars are known for their timeless sayings, such as \u201cWhat we believe about God is the most important belief we have,\u201d etc. If I could rather humbly borrow that thought and apply it to parenting, I would say that \u201cWhat we believe about why we have children is one of the most important parenting beliefs we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, it is not just important, but crucial, in how we parent. Do we believe that we have children to satisfy us, to make us happy, to fulfill us, to show off (!), or to \u201ccarry on our family name\u201d? <\/p>\n<p>Or do we believe that we should do as Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) says, and seek God and his righteousness\u2014and our children are those things added to our lives (and to help us further) as we seek God\u2019s kingdom: \u201cSeek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Obviously, children can add greatly to our lives\u2014and they are amazing and important. They have the potential to bring unspeakable joy to our souls. However, we should not desire children simply for our own happiness, but rather as a way for the Lord to bless us and use us in furthering His kingdom. <\/p>\n<p>If this is the case, we will not look at children as merely \u201ctoys\u201d or \u201caccessories,\u201d but rather as the huge responsibility that they really are to \u201cbring up in the training and instruction of the Lord\u201d (Ephesians 6:4 NIV).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Bible scholars are known for their timeless sayings, such as \u201cWhat we believe about God is the most important belief we have,\u201d etc. If I could rather humbly borrow that thought and apply it to parenting, I would say that \u201cWhat we believe about why we have children is one of the most important [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[643,488,633,308,281],"tags":[330,283,336],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Paradigm #1: Purpose for Having Children - Character Ink<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paradigm #1: Purpose for Having Children - Character Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Great Bible scholars are known for their timeless sayings, such as \u201cWhat we believe about God is the most important belief we have,\u201d etc. If I could rather humbly borrow that thought and apply it to parenting, I would say that \u201cWhat we believe about why we have children is one of the most important [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Character Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/characterinkcompany\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/characterinkcompany?ref=bookmarks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-09T03:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-11T19:01:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Donna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/\",\"name\":\"Paradigm #1: Purpose for Having Children - Character Ink\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-09T03:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-11T19:01:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/801ef5fa0749f7c8c379e32c743fba64\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/paradigm-1-purpose-for-having-children\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Paradigm #1: Purpose for Having Children\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/\",\"name\":\"Character Ink\",\"description\":\"Home of the Language Lady &amp; 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