multiply and replenish

This is not intended to offend anyone and is certainly not directed at anyone in particular at all. If you know me well, you know that I will share my opinions with any ear that will listen (or eye to read). I realize that there are certainly extenuating circumstances. This is just something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

God commanded us that we should multiply and replenish the earth. Families that have one or two children have not followed this commandment. They have only merely replenished themselves as children of our Heavenly Father. And I know I'm terrible at math, but only 3 kids in a family is not multiplication of yourselves. In 2004, the only info I could find on the size of an average household was 2.6 people worldwide. Only 2.6 people in the average household!! That's not even one child per couple. YIKES!

In this article in the April 2005 Ensign, it states (I copied and pasted):

Replenishing the Earth
After the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful, and multiply,” He commanded them to “replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). The Hebrew word translated as replenish means “to fill.” For many years we have heard warnings about overpopulation and the devastating effects it can cause. While some areas of the world are experiencing a negative impact from extreme population density, the world as a whole is actually moving in the opposite direction. Indeed, research indicates that by the year 2040 world population will peak and begin to decline. Probably a more relevant issue than population density is how we use the resources God has given us to support the population now and in the future. “For the earth is full,” He said, “and there is enough and to spare. … If any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment” (D&C 104:17–18). “The enemy of human happiness as well as the cause of poverty and starvation is not the birth of children,” said Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “It is the failure of people to do with the earth what God could teach them to do if only they would ask and then obey.”

Will and I got into a discussion last Sunday about this subject. We were in Sunday School and something was said about how Joseph and Emma Smith had 6 children by age 36 and how amazing that was. I said, probably louder than a little whisper (LOL), "psh, I'm 32 and I've got 5!" The girl in front of me turned and laughed and then asked, so are you done? I said no, and Will said only one more. I side glanced him and said, ya, he says only one more though I could probably have a few more, but he says no. (I always know exactly what to say to get him going. HA HA HA!!)

(she turned around and) Then he whispered to me, how do you think we can afford to have all these kids? I said, hon, it's not about being able to "afford" them. We have them and then the Lord will provide plenty for our needs as he always has. Then he says, No, I've always heard that you're not supposed to live outside your means. And I was like, yeah, that means not buying expensive stuff when you can't afford it, not, not having too many kids. Idk, it seems like that is a running "discussion" around here lately.

I will not have more kids than my husband says he feels comfortable with. Where I stand is that I've always heard that you just know when you are done. It's a definite feeling you get and I have not had that yet. I don't know that I won't get that "feeling" after the next one. It's just hard for me to imagine it since I haven't even come close to "feeling" done.

My house is already a zoo, I don't know what difference a couple more monkeys around here would make anyway!!! LOL

Thanks for reading my rant. I'm done now. =D