Big is Beautiful

When families have more than four children, American culture communicates the idea that the parents must be stupid. Yet what science documents a correlation between inherent intellectual ability and family size? Isn't poverty rather than population the problem? Could reparations play a role in removing global poverty? Read my article, "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans."

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 the Message Bible, "Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life."

While every amazing person is not from a large family, many amazing people have been conceived in families with four or more children. World-famous athlete and Civil Rights advocate Wilma Rudolph, was the 20th of 22 children, born to Blanche Rudolph and Ed Rudolph. With God on their side the Rudolph family overcome disability and illness. Wilma was a sickly child who had contracted polio at the age of four paralyzing her legs and requiring leg braces on her left leg and foot and an orthopaedic shoe for support of her foot. Wilma also had other illnesses, such as measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and double pneumonia. Read my article, "Disability Cannot Stop Us from Overcoming," for more on the Rudolph's story.

Who are some other amazing people from families with four or more children?

African American husband and wife James Forten (1766-1842) and Charlotte Vandine Forten (1785-1884) raised their nine children not only in material wealth but also in Christian and intellectual wealth. James was one of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's wealthiest merchants. James owned a business producing sails for ships. His business employed his own sons and both black and white people. Charlotte was a businesswoman who invested in real estate. James and Charlotte were leading members in the free-black community in Philadelphia, which was America's largest free-black community. James and Charlotte were both abolitionists. Charlotte along with the Forten daughters were founding members of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. James wrote letters and articles advocating justice and equality for black Americans and women published in various newspapers. James was also actively against forcing black people to leave America, which had become their country, to live in Africa or Haiti. James and Charlotte's home was a frequent stop on the Underground Railroad which helped fugitive slaves to hide from their former slave masters on the path to freedom.

The Forten children are: Margaretta Forten (suffragist), Harriet Forten Purvis (abolitionist and suffragist), Robert Bridges Forten (abolitionist), Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis (abolitionist), James Forten, Jr., (abolitionist), William Deas Forten (abolitionist), Charlotte Forten, Mary Theresa Forten and Thomas Willing Francis Forten. James and Charlotte taught their children to select spouses who shared their values. The Forten children absorbed the lessons and selected spouses who were also speakers and writers for abolition and other justice issues like women's right to vote. 

The Forten Christian activism extended to their grandchildren. Our children follow our words and our ways. With God the Holy Ghost in control of our lives, nothing good is impossible. Galatians 5:16 New Living Translation Bible says, "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves." One of the Forten's granddaughters, Charlotte Forten Grimke, was a teacher to newly freed slaves on the South Carolina Sea Islands. One of the Fortens' grandsons, Charles Burleigh Purvis, became the first black American to oversee a hospital with his appointment at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Who are some more Forten family members who have made notable contributions to society?

In the Forten family instead of men and women waging war with each other, they waged war against evil. Author and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, says, "Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side."

Former US. President Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, encouraging border states to outlaw slavery, helped push through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which finally freed all the slaves nationwide in December 1865, and led the United States through the American Civil War preserving the Union, said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Why don't we have a separate Federal holiday recognizing Lincoln?

Some are afraid of large families because they have bought fear-based propaganda. Yet 2 Timothy 2:7 Amplified Bible says,"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." Yes, one can motivate someone with fear. However, love is a more effective and enduring motivator. Fear creates false realities and causes fatalities. Love liberates and lengthens global good.

Pray for the end of China's forced abortion policies for couples that conceive more than one child, sex-selection abortion which is practiced globally and other evils. Naomi Zacharias, director of Wellspring International, says in the Wellspring International blog entry titled, "What Is Beautiful?" on 4/17/2012, "A tragic issue that has significantly impacted several countries in East Asia and is growing in North America, sex-selective abortion is chosen by parents with a preference for a son, who choose to abort their baby when a sonogram reveals the mother to be carrying a daughter. India alone is said to have 20-30 million “missing women,” and predictions estimate that by the year 2020, China will have 40 million unmarried men, a number equal to the entire population of young men in America. As direct result, crime rates, bride trafficking, sexual violence, and even female suicide rates are all rising." For more about abortion, read my article, "Thoughts About Abortion."

God creates different people with different assignments. International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer, is victorious over incest and has four grown children, all of whom have been involved in Joyce Meyer Ministries in various capacities. Some of her children are domestic engineers. Others head ministries like world missions. Joyce Meyer also married a man who committed multiple infidelities. She got pregnant by him, got a divorce and remarried, Dave Meyer, who adopted the son from the first marriage. Eventually, God used Joyce and others to build a broadcast audience for Joyce Meyer Ministries of more than 4.5 billion people reaching two-thirds of the world