Reasons to Get Married, #8: Baby Clock Ticking!

Tick, Tock!  Tick, Tock!  Many unmarried women want children and find themselves well into their thirties.  Biology tells them that the older they get, the less likely it is they will be able to get pregnant.  A woman's fertility starts declining after age 25.  Nowadays, beyond age 35, a pregnancy is considered "high risk."  Although, up to this point in their lives, they have been extremely choosy with the men they date, now, all of a sudden, they're looking at men they would have formerly rejected.

There are several women in my acquaintance who have been in this situation.  They have been fortunate to have had children within a year of their marriage.  However, their marriages have not been happy.

Other women never found a man they wanted to marry.  They seem at peace with their situations although they all report "pressure" from their mothers.  As one mother of a forty-something lamented, "Yes, I'm very proud of her.  She's had a wonderful career.  But I won't be around forever.  I wanted her to get married. I would like to know she has someone to take care of her."

This "Reason to Get Married" is similar to "Reason to Get Married, #3: Baby on the Way."  Getting pregnant in hopes the man will marry you won't always work. And if you do get married, what will you both get: a spouse who doesn't have the morals of self-restraint who uses you for their own pleasure and doesn't care if sex will result in a child.  Not an outstanding choice!  This choice (I don't believe in 'accidental' pregnancies!) may result in an unwed mother either raising the child by herself, killing the child by abortion (what a disastrous option!!) or giving the child up for adoption.

If they can't find a suitable husband, some women want a child and opt to get pregnant by either a one-night-stand liason or by artificial insemination.  I personally think this is extremely selfish. True, so many marriages end in divorce, but every child at least deserves a chance to have a father.  Children aren't 'products' that everyone deserves just because they want them - they should be the result of the love between husband and wife! 

Lord, your plan is best - ordered and blessed love in marriage may result in a new human, a baby!  Help us do everything we can to promote loving families!