I don't want kids

[MissH84]

Is it wrong for a Christian not to want children because the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply?
I don't have any maternal instincts and the only few times I feel like I want a baby is when I've seen a cute baby but that feeling doesn't last for long.
I have worked with children in the past but I don't want to be a parent myself. I'm happy with just me and my partner and I would rather have a pet if we would decide to get another family member.

 

[PloverWing]

No, it's fine. If you don't want children, don't have children.

As a species, we have abundantly obeyed the command to be fruitful and multiply, so that one's been taken care of. We can feel free to find other ways to contribute to the world.

 

[studentinprayer]

Is it wrong for a Christian not to want children because the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply?
I don't have any maternal instincts and the only few times I feel like I want a baby is when I've seen a cute baby but that feeling doesn't last for long.
I have worked with children in the past but I don't want to be a parent myself. I'm happy with just me and my partner and I would rather have a pet if we would decide to get another family member.

Of course it is fine to not have children, but I'd argue you are selling yourself short. Growing up in Nordic\Western culture you would have been exposed to a lot of anti-kid messaging. You've also said you're shy, which is often a sign you don't have strong boundaries where your opinions/thoughts begin and others end. I would not encourage you to rush into kids before you want them, but I'd also explore the issue as they are a great blessing and your life will almost certainly be harder without them.

 

[Joined2krist]

I don't think it's wrong, as long as you are nice to the ones you meet here and there that's fine.

 

[Unqualified]

I never wanted children, male 71. So I don’t have any biological children. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Was like the desire of my heart. I had a lot of sexual partners’ along the way but not until I decided to obey God, did I even get married. I didn’t want to bring them into the world without being married.

 

[Blade]

We are all free. The thing is God said it as a command to not do it is to disobey God. So anyone saying its ok, its fine. Man said that now GOD said "
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.”

As it is with every thing God told us .. its our free choice. Today Christ said I didn't come to condemn the earth but to save it. There is now no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus. So talk to Him tell Him why you don't want to. He loves you He is with you He will never get mad at you.. so talk to Him wait on Him.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Is it wrong for a Christian not to want children because the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply?
I don't have any maternal instincts and the only few times I feel like I want a baby is when I've seen a cute baby but that feeling doesn't last for long.
I have worked with children in the past but I don't want to be a parent myself. I'm happy with just me and my partner and I would rather have a pet if we would decide to get another family member.

We aren't under the Adamic covenant where God commanded us to go forth and multiply, we are under the New Covenant in Christ.

There's no Scriptural reason to have children. We all have gifts and callings and I don't suppose everyone is called to parenthood. There's nothing to say you have to.

I don't understand it, myself being called to motherhood, on a visceral level, but I can understand it on an intellectual one.

I think the older you get before starting a family the more daunting a task parenthood appears, because it is indeed a weighty responsibility that youth takes on the mantle of much more easily. Also, as the more set in your ways you become the more parenthood seems like a life intrusion instead of the new chapter that it is. If one thing is constant in life it's that life is ever changing.

 

[peacefulseeker]

To each their own. Spread the gospel through your actions.

 

[timothyu]

Most people don't want children as it is part of our selfish nature to think about self first. But that nature dissolves when one finds themselves saddled with keeping a fellow human alive and training and protecting them becomes natural. In effect children are God's way of forcing us by example to follow the second commandment and love all as self rather than just self. Parents unknowingly have repented of the self serving ways of man in favour of thinking of others, even putting them first.

 

[Soyeong]

Is it wrong for a Christian not to want children because the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply?
I don't have any maternal instincts and the only few times I feel like I want a baby is when I've seen a cute baby but that feeling doesn't last for long.
I have worked with children in the past but I don't want to be a parent myself. I'm happy with just me and my partner and I would rather have a pet if we would decide to get another family member.

There is debate within Judaism about whether the command to be fruitful and multiply is incumbent upon just men or both men and women:

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4013732/jewish/Be-Fruitful-and-Multiply-The-Commandment-to-Raise-Children.htm

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I think our culture has made child-bearing a negative thing. It is no longer "normal" and "natural." Everything in nature pushes us to desire and have children. It is not about the individual, who I consider a victim. I think many just get caught up in the society and it's drives, even to the point of overruling the drives of nature. There are theories that state once a culture becomes a certain age, it beings to self destruct by any number of means, including the dissolving of family, faith, and community. I think we are there. The scripture says Lot's righteous soul was vexed by his society. He had to be drug out. What should the individual do? I think one would want to find out if they are being swept up into this mindset and not really acting for the true good. Get away from the forces and people that constitute this wave of societal self-destruction. Get with people who love life, family, faith, and community. See what happens. It would be a major task. It is not easy to cut yourself off from your current groups and move into something that might seem foreign. But life is only so long, and for the females and child bearing, that time is even shorter.
I hope I have not offended anyone with these thoughts... it was not my intention.
Peace

 

[BNR32FAN]

Is it wrong for a Christian not to want children because the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply?
I don't have any maternal instincts and the only few times I feel like I want a baby is when I've seen a cute baby but that feeling doesn't last for long.
I have worked with children in the past but I don't want to be a parent myself. I'm happy with just me and my partner and I would rather have a pet if we would decide to get another family member.

God told Adam & Eve and Noah to be fruitful & multiply it was never commanded that everyone must be fruitful & multiply. Paul said it is better for us to not marry unless we have trouble with sins of lust in which case it would be better for us to marry. So I think it would be perfectly fine not to have children. Although I will say that my children have been the biggest blessing of joy in my life.

 

[SplendidSeraphim]

Most people don't want children as it is part of our selfish nature to think about self first. But that nature dissolves when one finds themselves saddled with keeping a fellow human alive and training and protecting them becomes natural. In effect children are God's way of forcing us by example to follow the second commandment and love all as self rather than just self. Parents unknowingly have repented of the self serving ways of man in favour of thinking of others, even putting them first.

There are valid reasons for not wanting children. It's not necessary selfish to not want children.

 

[Rescued One]

The Bible says children are a blessing and a reward from God. I love children, but relatives, neighbors, teachers and others can have devastating influences on them and cause parents sorrow and heartaches. Adam and Eve suffered and King David also.

Psalm 127
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.