This is a question that I feel like couple tend to ask regularly. When we take the time to turn to grandparents or great-grandparents why they will give us baffled look and say something like this "that's just what married couples did." We don't have to do things out of tradition or expectation. We are more likely to have kids as a statement, or as a lifestyle choice.
I don't know if we all remember when the 2008 economic crunch hit. That was when people became more likely to look beyond their wallets in order for them to experience the good things of life. From the Bible we've been taught that children are a blessing, but this message seems at odds with the headaches our culture insists that children bring.
Babies shape our souls
They require great care - especially as they transition from toddlers to teenagers. Children shape our souls like few other things in life, conditioning us to be more other-centered and to take a longer view of life. Many people read the headlines and are convinced that this world is too unstable - how can one subject children to such a place? Yes, raising a child in this current culture is not easy, however, while the fear of anxiety are natural emotions, the choice to be fruitful is an enduring and courageous encounter with hope.
Babies are described as in The Mystery of Children by Mike Mason as "renewers, ground-breakers and world-shakers, bearers of new seed, herald of a new age." So instead of us letting the problems of our current culture around us frighten us away from having children, we should recognize God's way of using new life to fix those problems, by bring renewal and fresh hope.
I just want to end with these words “As we look into the eyes of a child, we see a fellow son or daughter of God who stood with us in the pre-mortal life,” said Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “It is a crowning privilege of a husband and wife who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for these spirit children of God. We believe in families, and we believe in children.”
