“I should have been a better mother,” St. Monica said to Bishop Ambrose about her son Augustine. “If Augustine had been an easier child, God would not have given him a mother like you,” he responded. –Dialogue from the movie Restless Heart: The Confessions of St. Augustine.
God told us: “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. ” Genesis 1:28. The latest birth rate numbers show we aren’t listening.
Sadness was not what I expected while listening to a popular Catholic speaker. His love of God and family bubbled over as he described a beautiful coming-of-age tradition when kids became teenagers in his family. That’s when it hit me. “Wow, our families are so different!”
It’s not humility to declare one’s self as insufficient. It’s a rejection of God. Selfishness is trending. This month the NY Times article No Kids for Me, Thanks trotted out the latest self-centered choice gaining acceptance: choosing childlessness. Granted, selfishness is in our bones from the moment of birth when it was me, me, me,…