Is it too late to want to have a family?

 

Elder Nikon

Elder, there’s a woman asking :”Is it ok for someone over the age of 40 to pray persistently to God to have a family?

Yes, sure… She should pray and never disappointed. She should pray and struggle and try to make a family …etc In the city that we are in, I have a friend we went to university together. His mother was extremely pious. Her daughter wasn’t married, “Please, pray for her to get married let’s use the name Dimitroula. Pray for my Dimitroula to get married. Dimitroula, she was 48 years old. We did prayers ropes, we did prayers Dimitriula didn’t close herself off in the Icon painting studio, or in the kitchen, she was going out, going on pilgrimages, going to catechism classes, going to homilies, then someone noticed her a 55 year old, he liked her … Dimitroula got married at 50. Then her mother started : “Please, pray that my Dimitroula can have a child … pray my daughter can have a child”. Dimitroula was also extremely pious she was visiting Saints, going to wonder working icons, she was lighting candles… Her Dimitroula had a child at the age of 52. So we must persist. But without worry, without anxiety. We’ll say “If it is Your will”. We won’t quit. We won’t back down. We’ll struggle. Always. God help me. At 48 she got married, at 52 she got pregnant. Well, all these things are arranged by God. We will persist. Knock … Not just once. Keep knocking …Continuously! Ask … Don’t ask just once. Ask continuously. And I will give you. So as to learn to persist and remain in prayer, which is a union with Christ. And even if she does not get married, or have children, she will discover the benefits not in the afterlife, but in this life! So for this reason let’s do what Christ’s Church says and have everything in the hands of the good God.  

By : Panteleimon monastery