I’ve said it. Most likely, you’ve said it, too, at some time or another.

It seems harmless enough, but I now cringe deep down into my pinky toes every time I hear the following phrase said to a woman about to get married:

“When you have children…”

Oh, how easily we assume and make light of God’s gifts!  Oh, how effortlessly such words of expectation and law slip past our lips! Oh, how quickly we in the church fail to confess the truth about children to one another!

Children are not a given in marriage. They are God’s blessing spoken over marriage, His heritage to bestow, His gift to give according to His wise will.

“If God blesses you and your husband with the gift of children…”

Yes, that’s better.