That is why, by the way, it is -- I learned -- When I was in graduate school at Columbia, I learned that the reason that people are having fewer children is affluence. It's not true. The reason people have fewer children is secularism. Rich, religious people have a lot of children.
When I get a call from a caller it is never -- not once in 35 years has this not been the case. Someone will call me up and if they mention that they have more than five children, I say -- So I say, "Don't answer me. Just tell me are you an Orthodox Jew, a Mormon in good standing in your church, a practicing Catholic or an Evangelical Christian?" They have been one of those four in every instance in 35 years of broadcasting. I've never met a secular person with six kids, because there's no reason to do it.
Keeping Sheep I have a little flock of sheep and they are mine to tend and keep, and I must guard them every day for little lambs, when left alone, will lose their way. So many voices say to me, “A sheep fold is no place to be. your time in there is dull and slow, and lambs leave very little room for you to grow.” Oh, if I ever start to stray, deceived by thoughts of greener pastures, remind me, Lord, that keeping sheep will lead to happier ever afters. Oh, surely there will come a day when all the lambs have left my side and I am free to roam about and go exploring other meadows, green and wide. Yet, something whispers in my heart that when my sheep have left this pen I’ll long to stroke their little heads, to draw them close to me and have them young again. So, if I ever start to stray, deceived by thoughts of greener pastures, remind me, Lord, that keeping sheep will lead to happier ever afters. (1)
Everything in a family hinges on and depends upon the love between the mother and father. The family lives or dies by it. We may gain some emotional benefit from spoiling our kids, but what they need — what gives them the greatest benefit — is to see a father who honors his wife and a mother who respects her husband. One way or another, whether we like or not, they will learn far more about love from observing us than they will from the hugs and kisses we heap on them.
"The most mysterious and fateful of all human relationships" is the one between children and parents. "There is no dissolution of these states except death"