So, again, I apologize for the delay in my post (hi Cheryl and Cara!!), but here it is.
I'm not sure that it's anybody's business how many children you do or do not have. If you feel strongly that God has called you to a life of no medical birth control, then God has probably created you to have a lot of children. If you feel strongly that you want to be married for a couple of years before you embark on parenthood, then be glad you live in the 21st century and birth control is safe, legal, affordable, and readily available-no stigma attached. Where I run into an issue on the debate is when people who feel strongly one way or the other make others who don't share their opinion feel like they're wrong, or worse, out of God's will for their lives.
I remember in a sermon one time, Andy Stanley (pastor of my church) mentioned that if a pastor ever got up and said that he felt as though God had told him something that He wanted ME to do, to RUN and keep running away from that church. Because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, I no longer have to depend on a middle man between me and God. If God wants me to do something, He'll tell me himself. God has not told me to have 18 children. God, because he created me, knows that I am hanging on by a thread with the 2 he gave me. There is no need to add to the chaos. But does that mean the Duggars should have stopped at 2? Absolutely not! God told them something different.
I think if we all adopted this philosophy in a lot of areas, we'd be better off. I'm especially thinking of the working inside the home vs. outside the home debate. Check out Best Mom tip #25 on I'm the best mom (link on the left) for a great sum up of how I feel about this! Really, when you boil it all down, we're all doing the best we can with what we have and what we know. Why do we have to put other people down to make us feel more confident in our decisions? Of course, we all think what we're doing is the right way (or else we wouldn't be doing it) but do we really have to get converts over to our side to justify our decisions?
I'll close the post with what my mom had to say about the subject. "God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" was in the Old Testament-and that was just to re-populate the Earth after He'd wiped it out."
So, be fruitful, or not. Because of Jesus and birth control, the choice is yours. :)
I know, I made all these big plans about my year of productivity and blogging on Thursdays, but I really have a great excuse.
Since I've updated last I have had pink eye (in both eyes) and a viral sore throat (betcha didn't know that was a thing!) that lasted 7 days. I actually was gargling with viscous lidocaine, it hurt so bad.
So I was busy catching up all the things I had to not do while I was sick, so blogging took a back seat.
I have not forgotten about our birth control debate and will get back to it on Thursday (promise!!), but wanted to plead my case in the meantime.
See you soon!
