Start Your Family: Inspiration for Having Babies

This book is great for the Christian couple. I'd recommend it for anyone who is putting off having children for money, career, being "free", etc. This book is not all roses, but is blunt and honest using scripture and quoting MANY credible sources as well as the author's personal experiences. It also talks about the facts of life- that women's fertility is NOT forever and begins to decline at age 27. (I double checked this- it's true). My husband and I are reading this book together and we are not quite done with it. Sure it made me feel a little bad that we hadn't started earlier, but I also know it's not too late. They often talk about the two extremes - starting young at ages 22-24 or trying to start later at 38-40. So we are in the middle and glad we're not waiting any longer. I highly recommend this book - not that it's "law", but that is a very in depth look into starting a family early and before it's too late. Great opinions and a new look at the subject. Enjoy.

Only in the past 100 years, has the normative pattern become for married couples to postpone having children until they deem themselves "ready". Many people are even "choosing to be childless", permanently. Most Christian couples follow the cultural paradigm for starting their families, without any thought of searching the Scriptures for God's Wisdom, on this matter. Steve and Candice Watters' timely work, Start Your Family: Inspiration for Having Babies, encourages married couples to have a biblical worldview about having children. Steve and Candice Watters exhort couples to not take their fertility for granted. They dispel the myth that childbearing can be postponed, and achieved, at will. The Watters' remind us that "Birth control interrupts fertility, it doesn't extend it."They scripturally present the case that the 20's are a "window of opportunity" for bearing children. Start your Family gives a realistic view of parenting, sharing both the struggles and the joys. Steve and Candice encourage couples to cast away fears about having children and parenting, and to step out in faith. Parenting calls us to lean wholeheartedly on the Lord, as He makes up for our ample inadequacies. It is so encouraging to read how the Lord has changed Steve and Candice's hearts, through parenting. Even as a mother of three children, Start Your Family has been such a blessing for me to read. It has renewed and refreshed my vision of the importance of bearing and raising godly children. It has reminded me of the importance of leaning upon the Lord, moment by moment, for His sustaining strength. I am thrilled to have found a resource that I can wholeheartedly recommend to engaged or newly married couples.

I finished reading the book today, while holding my two month old son. I can't imagine not having him in our lives even though nine months ago the news of him was not that exciting. But, now having him here I wouldn't go back if I could and "Start Your Family" confirmed that. Steve and Candice's honesty and passion encourages me as a new mom to keep pressing on and to praise God each day for the blessings of our little boy. Their book also challenges my husband and I as we think about more kids. When is the right time for number two? Is it wise to wait a little while? Why wait at all? I find the worlds ideas creaping in quickly even with one child. This book spoke honest truth from God's Word into my heart about this issue. And lastly it inspired me. As I read chapter 10 it provided great questions for me and my husband to talk about, wrestle with and seek the Lord on. I will recommend this book to all my friends, whether single, married without kids or married with kids it provides a lot of food for thought.

As a new bride, Start Your Family: Inspiration for Having Babies, by Steve and Candice Watters, was one of the most timely books I have read in the last year. After all the work required to plan a wedding and transition into a new season of life, my pre-engagment excitement about having a baby dwindled as I simply did not want to transition yet again. This book refreshingly reminded me of my desire for children, excitement about motherhood, and the purpose of my new marriage. Passionate, but not preachy, the Watters illustrate how their shared heart to see the next generation come forth is not just a personal conviction, but in fact God's heart and plan for His creation, even a means of fulfilling the great commission. Scripture, statistics and scientific facts come to the defense of their thesis, but not once in an overwhelming, dry, or legalistic manner. Rather, all the information is eloquently woven together in love and vulnerability through sharing their own story of having and raising babies. Together Steve and Candice take on current cultural standards and weigh them against the word of God. Whether it is a matter of fear, ambition, or lack of desire, they challenge readers to evaluate before the Lord the source of our reasons for waiting to have children, with the reminder that a woman's fertility declines much more dramatically with age than many of us realize. Together they explain how the ways we have conformed to the world have put children on the back burner for most young couples. Today we trade having babies for dream careers and dual incomes; the richness of family homes for pottery barn style; and the rootedness of growing mulit-generational family trees for soul-mate inspired companionship marriages. Candice and Steve present a biblical call to once again view having children as part of being married, noting that though the bible condones singleness for the sake of ministry, not once does it condone voluntary childlessness as an obedient lifestyle option for married couples. In perfect Watters fashion, this book is a call to intentionality, but even greater than that, it is a call to holiness. They don't paint a one-sided happy picture about all the joys of having a family without emphasizing the great sacrifice required to raise godly offspring for the Lord (Malachi 2:15), but with encouragement that this lifestyle of sacrifice produces selflessness and strength of character. As my husband and I read this book together, it strengthened our understanding that having children is part of our purpose in being one flesh. We are grateful to have had access to the wisdom and facts presented in Start Your Family so early on in our marriage. I would recommend this book to all newly married and engaged couples who are interested in gaining some scriptural truth and basic facts about how (and when) to open up their lives for the possibility of babies.

I believe that "Start Your Family" is an important, much-needed book in today's Christian culture. It reminds readers, even those such as myself who are parents, that having children shouldn't be an afterthought for married couples. This book is a great resource for any couple who is ambivalent about having kids or undecided on when to become parents. Steve and Candice make a compelling argument in favor of family through the use of research, personal accounts, humor, and biblical truth. They discuss the "why," "when" and "how." And, while I'm not normally a fan of reading statistics on fertility, the numbers and stories included are perfect for the book's intended audience. Couples are reminded that the clock is ticking. At the same time, this book is hopeful for those who are older and wanting children. Candice's story of having a baby after being told by doctors she was menopausal is inspiring. It clearly shows that "all things are possible for God." As I closed the book, I could already think of several couples I know who could benefit from the Watters' wisdom.