Our Family’s Story

Our procession of thirteen children in the market or down the sidewalk can generate a lot of questions! Because we often don’t have the time to chat during our errands, we wrote out some common questions about our family. Since many do ask us, we will say we are not Mormons or Catholics! We are Bible-believing Christians who believe the human race is in bondage to sin, and God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for that sin, out of His love for us. While the Bible does not teach that people are obligated to produce a certain amount of offspring, it does have quite a lot to say about the value of children and the task of parenting. We think it is sad that most people dismiss the Bible without ever taking the time to check it out for themselves. When we married in 1985, we followed popular advice to “wait a few years” before starting a family. Everyone told us this, so we figured it must be best. However, as the years unfolded, we learned that popular opinion often contradicts the Bible. God will hold each person accountable for their actions; we cannot just say, “Everyone told us to do things this way,” as an excuse. In the area of children we soon saw the obvious: God is the Creator of life, so His advice would be the best to take. Three years after getting married, we finally decided to “try” to have a child! While most people were happy for us, many also warned us that having a child meant our happy days were over for good! We were tempted to worry: were we wrong in thinking a child was a priceless blessing? Would we live to regret our son’s birth? No, not so far! After the birth of our fourth child, we were challenged by a friend to let the Lord decide how many children we should have. We had to say “yes”. Since God is always faithful, letting Him decide how many children we should have was the only logical decision.

“Isn’t it a lot of work?”

Yes, we have a lot to do. However, we have changed a lot since were first married. We have learned that laziness and leisure are not really the best for us. But even more, children truly are blessings. We don’t feel we are babysitting everyday; these little people are our treasures. God has used them, and the demands of parenting, to help us see our need for the Lord’s strength. We are not perfect parents. God is still working in our lives and never gives up on us, even though we are very unworthy!

“Your children are so good!”

Our children are normal children and we are normal people. The Bible says that normal people are sinners by nature. One investment we have had to make is discipline. Our children are born desiring their own way, and we have to lovingly and patiently train them that their obedience is required. It is hard work! Rather than giving in to their every wish, spoiling them, trying to “keep them quiet” or “keep them out of our hair,” we must choose to love them by training them in the way they should go. It is not loving our children to indulge them, to teach them that in order to be happy, they must have their way. This only leads to selfish, unhappy adulthood! We love our children unconditionally, but we understand that they have the same tendency to be self-seeking as we do. One major purpose of our outings (shopping, etc.) is to teach and practice loving one another as ourselves. We sure need the practice! We don’t believe that perfect parenting produces perfect children. Rather, our goal in parenting is to show our children that they need the Lord in order to live a life pleasing to Him. Jesus called this being “born again.”

“You must be rich!”

God has always provided for our family. He has miraculously given Dave a career which usually requires a college degree, though he has none. Supporting a family our size does take money, but God has always provided what we needed when we needed it. In our early years of marriage, when we just had ourselves to spend on, we were terrible in handling our money. We always ran out, and had nothing to show for it! Jesus said to not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. He said to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Our true riches are our children, and they are the only things we can take with us to heaven. It is our prayer that they will each put their faith in Christ our Savior. Our main financial goal has always been that Debbie would stay home with our children. By eliminating a lot of other non-necessities, we have found a lot of ways to help with this goal!

“Don’t you ever want a break?”

Truthfully, no. We get tired; we get stressed; we get discouraged sometimes. We have to choose to believe what God has said about children over what we feel in our selfish hearts! We see so much that the Lord wants to do in our family and are thankful for what He has already done. We have so much hope in God’s promises for us and our children. And we see that we are not perfect parents! We haven’t done everything perfectly. When we have challenges with our children, it’s not usually too hard to see where we have slacked off in following the directions in the Bible. Maybe you could say we’ve been “re-programmed.” We believe children (even handicapped, retarded, or “unwanted” children) are a blessing from God. They are His creation. Children are not the problem, but our society’s attitude towards them often can be. For example, we are repulsed by public school programs where students are given an electronic “baby” which must be held and fed when the alarm goes off.to show young adults how their lives will be weighed down by a child! Such an experience can only contribute to a terrible attitude towards parenthood. By following God’s plan, including loving, prompt and attentive discipline and parental instruction based on God’s Word, we spare ourselves so many unnecessary struggles with our children. Parenting is hard work, but it is a privilege and well worth it.

“And you homeschool, too?!”

Parenting requires that we prepare our children for life. School is one part of that preparation. It is not the only thing, nor is it necessarily the most important thing. What we mean by “homeschool” may not be the common perception of homeschool. It is not a school in our home. Traditional schools are set up for the convenience of school staff handling huge numbers of children. They are not set up that way because it is the best way to educate a child. We simply include our children in our daily life. We use various tools to equip them, spiritually and academically. We teach them parenting skills (using live children!!), home making, technical things, whatever we feel the Lord would have them learn to serve Him. We want them to learn that work is something God provides for us, and doing what God wants is not drudgery. We want them to see real life and share in the lives of people God has put in their lives. We want to teach them that the purpose of life is not leisure and play. Homeschooling allows us as parents to be the primary influence over our children, and we feel that is very important, given our directions in the Bible. Truly, our example is their biggest teacher, and that is a very intimidating fact! Our daily involvement, we feel, is really the only way to carry out our job descriptions as given in the Bible. There are so many precious memories we share with our children because of homeschooling and so many opportunities for more. Well, thanks again for your interest! We pray that these comments will draw you to our wonderful Lord Jesus, and His perfect design for humans! This world and its trouble is a tremendous monument to the folly of the wisdom of man. Just as in all nature, God has a plan for all plant and animal life which is mysterious and awesome in design, He has a plan for human life. That plan is contained in His Word, the Bible. Yet, unlike plant and animal life, God has given us a choice, not instinct, whether or not to follow Him. Sincerely, Dave and Debbie Klein and family