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Reacting to why actor Seth Rogen says he and his wife don’t want kids, Father Len explains the relationship between making commitments, happiness, love, and having kids.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

• “It’s not an easy haul having kids. You can’t be narcissistic. You have to give yourself over to parenting. Kids have got to be the priority.” – Howard Stern
• God asks of us that our lives be life-giving.
• Living life for yourself, free from commitments, is an immature definition of happiness.
• Commitments lead to greater happiness. Lack of commitments lead to greater unhappiness.
• You’ll never find yourself through your feelings and aspirations. What defines you is your commitments.
• “Without being bound to the fulfillment of our promises, we would never be able to keep our identities; we would be condemned to wander helplessly and without direction in the darkness of each person’s lonely heart, caught in its contradictions and equivocations.”-Hannah Arendt
• Being unable to settle on something means not being settled ever.
• People willing to commit to marriage and having children almost always test out happier than those who don’t.
• The world tells us self-fulfillment comes from being free of commitments. Truth says fulfillment comes after commitments.
• People who avoid commitments and constantly pursue pleasure in pursuit of an easy life tend to end up bitter and unhappy.
• Christ challenges us to not to choose the easy way, to make a sacrifice and give ourselves away.
• Life is not supposed to be easy, but rather a great adventure.
• Pursuing pleasure as happiness always ends up in unhappiness.
• Each year since 1972, there has been a gradual decline in people’s overall happiness in the United States. This despite the average person spending 22% more on eating out and entertainment, living in homes that have doubled in size, having huge screen TVs, access to the Internet, and social media.
• The moral question is not whether you should or should not have kids. The moral question is why you would not want to have children.
• Religion challenges us to look at everything in life and decide what kind of life we want to have.
• Once you fall in love, you can’t help but want to give yourself away. That’s what real love feels like.
• God’s perpetual command is to make an offering of our lives, to give ourselves away.
• Those who don’t know the power of commitment are yet to know what love is.
• God is a trickster who tricks people into falling in love and willing to sacrifice everything for those they love.

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Links to Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions

• Wrestling with God Show: http://WWGShow.com
• Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org
• A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/