The Joys of Catholic Families

I wake up every morning so very happy that I am a Catholic.

Catholics tell you to make babies! ("Be fruitful and multiply....")

I LOVE children and I have always wanted to have a lot of them. But our culture told me not to, that babies are a burden. It is almost wrong to have too many of them..... hurts the environment, takes time away from my relationship with my husband and other children, tires me, keeps me from having a career. And THINK about my waistline..... tsk, tsk, a pencil thin woman might come and take my husband away.....

"Really.... what WERE you thinking Teresa? You are SO smart, why waste your life and God-given talents and education by staying home with your CHILDREN? Selfish.... wasteful... extravagent. You may have one or maybe TWO but, after that... think of your family, your patriotism, your world...."

Then I became Catholic and found out GOD LIKES BABIES. His first command was for us to have ........ yes...... SEX and make babies, lots and lots of them. Populate HIS KINGDOM with those precious little eternal souls. God loves babies and hates when we kill them..... Catholics teach it is wrong to even use artificial birth control. THAT IS A SIGN OF FAITH!! That we would even allow GOD to decide for us how many babies to have.

It is only in our time that children are considered a curse, a burden. Not long ago, our babies were our REWARD from God and He said in scriptures, "Happy is the man who had his quiver full of them." To Catholics life IS precious. This life and the next life; it is all a wonderful gift from God and must be protected and nurtured from the second we are a little glimmer in God's eyes till our fleshly bodies are shed and we follow our beloved Maker into the next world.

It is our culture of "me"ism that has twisted our thinking about big families.

MOMMIES and DADDIES would be SO happy if we started to think differently about our children.

1. When we started allowing our children to run our houses and lost our authority as parents, we lost control of our homes and our children became a burden. If we could relearn the art of discipline then we could enjoy our children again. PARENTS: RAISE YOUR CHILDREN IN A WAY THAT YOU CAN ENJOY THEM!!

I don't see a lot of parents enjoying their children. They are either yelling at them or ignoring them. Give them twice as much love as discipline and LOTS of discipline. By the time they are four or five, they know who is running the show and I can guarantee that if THEY FEEL THEY are running the show, everyone--mostly the children themselves--will be miserable. Never be angry with your child. Give them a swift swat on the bottom before they can understand anything else when they disobey. Then when they can understand, give them consequences and FOLLOW THROUGH..... Once they know whose boss, you will begin to enjoy them.

2. Set limits on their time. What ever happened to naps? Kids don't get naps anymore..... How stupid is that? It gave some time to mommy and the kids learned to play by themselves and listen to the quiet. Quiet time is good on their creativity and nerves. MAKE SURE your kids get quiet time-- a couple of hours a day.

3. Families need to help. Don't take a job too far away from your family so they can help with your children. Sounds like I want to go back to days of Leave It to Beaver and I say YES! Let' s make the sacrifice to stay around family so we can all bond and parents can have help. Life is about sacrifice. Its good for you.

So, to sum this first post up......

Catholicism loves babies and families and know that all the struggels involved are good for us. Like the old saying a couple of rocks have to knock against each other for a long time before they become polished gems.....

#1 JOYS OF BEING CATHOLIC