I am 26 years old and single. I know that having a family is expensive and I want to be financially responsible and not get married and have children before I can afford to. Right now I have a steady job and I make enough money to pay for the things that I need and to save a little bit. I could not buy a house or support a wife and children with my current income, and I think that it is unlikely that the income from my job will increase in the near future. I am looking into starting some kind of side business to increase my income, but I know that the outcome of that is uncertain. I am also concerned that mass inflation will continue and that I will be poorer in the future than I am now because of it.
So the advice I am looking for is how long I should wait to start seriously looking for a wife. I want to make sure that what I do is in line with scripture and that I will be able to fulfill all of my responsibilities to my family. The scripture that I found about being a provider is exodus 21:10-11 and 1 timothy 5:8 but other than that I am not sure what my financial obligations are to my wife according to the bible.
Do you think that I would be meeting my obligations to provide food, clothing, and shelter to my wife if her income to is required to help pay the bills?
I know that if I had several wives instead of one we could all pool our income together and better afford things. I am just not sure if it would be a good idea to pursue plural marriage for financial reasons.
The birds of the air don't ask questions like this. Do your best and have as many kids and wives as you want/He wills.
Matthew 6
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.