Cutting monetary donations to build family?

[Thefishwife]

My husband and I just had a miscarriage of an unplanned pregnancy. We were both devastated, because it was our child and we were already in love with him or her. Even though we were worried about financially being able to support a second child, we trusted God to take care of our family.

Since the miscarriage we have discussed the possibility of trying again, but my husband and I are both still concerned about money and being able to support the baby.

I feel such a calling to try again, and going through the budget I am trying to pare down anything and everything we can to try and save up, save up, save up so that we would be in a more responsible position. Unfortunately, we have always had to be frugal and paring is not that easy anymore. We don’t have cable, we use prepaid phones, we live in the cheapest apartment we could find, we never go out to eat (hardly ever out on dates), we only buy necessities (usually with coupons), we cloth diaper, etc. The only thing left to cut is how much we give in offering monthly to our church, charities and to our children’s catholic school education fund (1st child is only 1 yr). We give about $150 a month between these three.

As much as I don’t want to cut these areas, is saving up to become more financially stable in order to have another child a just reason to cut back on monetary donations to these causes?

 

[MaryT777]

Dear one,

I am so very sorry for your loss. I experienced four of these losses personally and each time the grief was beyond measure. My arms ached to hold my little ones it was awful.

Take a deep breath and give yourself time. Perhaps now is not the time to burden yourself with financial planning? Give yourself a few months…rest, pray, spend time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration if you can. Ask Him what He is calling you to do. He has wonderful plans for you and for your family.

I am not trying to be vague and therefore not help you. I just believe that (unfortunately) no one here can tell you “yes, you should give XXXXX amount of money to charity instead” because no one here really knows your situation. What I do know is that you cannot out-give God in generosity! Please be assured of my prayers and know that your little one is in the arms of Mary at the Throne of Our Lord. Please take care as best as you can.

What a beautiful reply; I add my prayers for the OP.

 

[cheezey]

Dear one,

I am so very sorry for your loss. I experienced four of these losses personally and each time the grief was beyond measure. My arms ached to hold my little ones it was awful.

Take a deep breath and give yourself time. Perhaps now is not the time to burden yourself with financial planning? Give yourself a few months…rest, pray, spend time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration if you can. (And in every way) Ask Him what He is calling you to do. He has wonderful plans for you and for your family.

I am not trying to be vague and therefore not help you. I just believe that (unfortunately) no one here can tell you “yes, you should give XXXXX amount of money to charity instead” because no one here really knows your situation. What I do know is that you cannot out-give God in generosity! Please be assured of my prayers and know that your little one is in the arms of Mary at the Throne of Our Lord. Please take care as best as you can.

I am so sorry for your loss. Been there. Please take time for yourself right now. You need to care for yourself before you can take care of budgets. Gain some strength first.
My prayers are with you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Years ago, I apologized to my parish priest for having given so little to the parish that year. He didn’t even pause before responding. He mentioned that I was then raising “five young Catholics in the faith”, some of whom were then in Catholic school. He opined that my contribution was, in the light of that, entirely sufficient because I was “contributing to the church” in other ways.

I’m prejudiced, of course, in favor of people having children. But my view is that adding souls to Christ’s kingdom through birthing and raising Catholic children is a value well beyond any financial sum you could possibly donate.