20 kids and counting...

Many of you have no doubt seen or heard of the Duggars. They are a Christian family in Arkansas who have their own TV show because of their very large family. So large in fact, that Michelle Duggar recently announced that she is pregnant with number 20 at the age of 45.

I decided to do a blog entry about them since Matt and I regularly watch the show and there seems to be alot of controversy surrounding them. I know alot of people have an opinion about them and I wanted to throw my two cents out there. Feel free to throw yours in here too.

As I said, Matt and I have been watching '19 kids and counting' pretty much as long as we've been married. Reason being, its hard to find a show on tv that makes you smile and doesnt have vulgar jokes or bad language. I also love that it shows Christians in a pretty good light. Now im not saying that all of us woman should be wearing skirts 24/7 or have kid after kid. But I certainly dont knock those who feel convicted to do so.

I read an interesting article the other day written by someone who was NOT a Christian, who couldnt understand why people found them so annoying. She talked about how people look up to celebrities and watch other reality shows without criticism, but when it comes to the Duggars they had nothing but bad things to say. What exactly is it that people find so repulsive about them? That they practice what they preach? That their children are well behaved and polite? That they are modest? Or maybe how they live debt free without any credit cards? (and yes... I realize they must be making good money now from their TV show... but if you read their books youll learn that they have lived this way from the start and it was certainly hard for many years.)

I think that must be whats going on. People dont understand why they are the way they are. For example... do people realize the reason why Michelle leaves how many children she has up to God? She was on birth control, but suffered the devastating loss of a child because of it. After that they wanted nothing to do with it.
Others laugh at the thought of 'courting' instead of dating as the Duggars do. I dont find that crazy at all. In fact, thats what my husband and I did. When we decided to enter into a relationship it was with the intention of getting married. We werent casual daters. We had a serious conversation before hand and It kept us from finding out a few months down the road that this wasnt going to work and having both of us get hurt. We were engaged 3 months later.

Michelle homeschooled all of her children and after reading their books, Matt and I decided that we would really like to homeschool our children for the first few years. Heres the verse she gave that we really hadnt given much thought to before.

"Train a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

We like the idea of us being the ones who teach our children - at least at first. Once they are a little older we hope to send them to christian school, if we can afford it. Alot of people think homeschooling or Christian schooling is sheltering children. And im sure many people think the Duggars are overly sheltered. I dont agree. There is enough perversion in the world today that all we need to do is step out our front door and we are exposed to it. Usually, you dont even need to go as far as the front door. Sin saturates our world today.

I am not writing this to convince you that the Duggars are perfect people. Far from it. But I just wanted to say that I am encouraged by them and how they live their life. I respect them. And I pray that I will be able to successfully raise a happy, healthy God fearing family like they have.