Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I think the biggest tragedy of the post-modern era is the demonization and vilification of the family and of having children. In our modern world of business as usual and ambitious capitalism we have begun to demonize having children. The terms for people who have young families, or large families, are usually demeaning or negative. The institution of the family and the place of children is generally looked as a detriment to progress, to making money, to achieving one's personal goals. Wasn't having a family the point of ambition and goals in the first place? Even Darwin would agree with this..
The family is a gift from God. It is a mystical experience. We must pray about it, to find the Grace to be able to fulfill our responsibilities and obligations, but it as much a gift as it is a chore. Families are our purpose. Further, as a Church or as a society we are all an extended family by default, because metaphorically speaking, we share the same planet and we are all in the same boat than in this regard. We mutually effect each other. This is why God has put us in this world, to act in synergy with His Grace. We play our part, just like the Saints and Angels have their roles in the Heavenly Court. The Devil is trying to destroy us and buy himself more time by trying to slow down the family. In the Scriptures and in the Synaxarium we read of many righteous men and women praying their entire lives just to be blessed with a single child like Samson or Samuel, like John the Baptist or like Saint Tekle Haimanot! Now, people pray to NOT GET PREGNANT!! Lord have His Mercy!! Where are our priorities? Our values? The Devil might even think he was winning.
The myth of "over-population" is just that, a myth, and one of the Devil's most potent in his arsenal.
It is fear mongering at the highest level, the complete opposite of love thy neighbor. Instead of loving our neighbors, we arbitrarily decide some are worthy to live, and others are excessive, burdensome, over-populating.. What a crock!! All life is valuable, God doesn't make mistakes as they say. If God brings a life into this world, it is for a purpose, and no life is less sacred than another. Overpopulation is not a physical reality,
it is a political matter of resource distribution. Whether we are talking about the 1984/85 famine in Ethiopia, the Irish "Potato Famine" of the 19th century, or even perhaps the famine which occurred during the time of our father Jacob and the Twelve Patriarchs who took the people of Israel in Egypt where there was plenty of grain. How did the Apostles deal with the coming of famine in the book of the Acts? They prepared because of the gift of prophecy.
The Devil always tries to deceive us by fear, by making us afraid that we will never have enough, that we are never good enough, that we will always fail and even die. The Devil suggests there are not enough resources to go around, to share, so people give into their passions and they fight, and they covet, and they steal, all of which are sins against the Golden Rule.
We need to fight the spiritual battle in prayer, and pray for family like the righteous couple Elisabeth and Zachariah, and not let the Devil make us afraid of our very children who are what makes the world go around and a good enough reason as any to get up out of bed each new day

stay blessed,
habte selassie