The Third Prayer

I’ve been working on a series of post to discuss Natural Family Planning and why we made the decision to use this method of birth control.  Please feel free to ask questions, leave comments and I will address them in a further post.  This will be Part I in the series on NFP.

Why?

When we were engaged to be married, we knew we wanted to practice NFP.  We didn’t know how it worked or anything about it at the time but we knew it was the right thing to do.  Mainly because we understood the church teachings and why they opposed the use of birth control.  There are many Catholics who do whatever the church says and others who don’t at all.  I tend to think I belong in a third category: listen to what the church says, do some research to understand why they say it, and finally, do it because I understand.  That is how NFP came to be in our marriage.  And this is what we found out:

God clearly points out in the Bible that he wants us to be fruitful and multiple (Genesis 1:28.)  Here is just one beautiful example, Psalm 127:3- Children too are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward.  (How true it is!)

There are tons and tons of references to how He loves children and as man and wife, it is our gift to make them.

The church opposes the use of artificial birth control because it prohibits the creation of a baby.  (Although, next week I will discuss how this isn’t the case at all when it comes to the pill.)  The main reason a man and wife becomes one is to create a family!  The church believes that by barricading your fertility you are going against God’s plan for you.  When you use condoms, the sponge, the pill, etc., you are doing so because you are not ready to be a parent.  You are using unnatural means to get to your end. 

 At the same time, you are telling God, “Hey it is my body and I can do what I want with it.”  And really that’s not true.  God gave you everything you have, including your gift of fertility.  That right there was proof enough for me. 

Some skeptics would say that NFP is no different then the use of artificial birth control because you are still avoiding pregnancy.  God is wise and He doesn’t expect for married couples to have baby after baby after baby.  Some couples are meant to have one, some are meant to have 10, and some, are meant to have none.  God knows that there are times when a pregnancy should be avoided.  For instance, you are not financially ready.  God knows that financial stresses will only hinder a child’s growth so He understands.  God understands if you have other stresses in your life and are not ready to accept another baby at that time.  God understand situations.  But we don’t believe that He understands when you make the decision to say no by taking control of your own body.

But why not use birth control instead of “risking” a pregnancy during a stressful situation?  Well, God makes it clear in the Bible what happens if you use birth control.  In Genesis, Chapter 38, Onan didn’t want to have children with his wife so he would “waste his seed on the ground.”  What did God do?  He killed him (Ch. 38:10.)

And I will leave it at that.  Next week I will discuss How NFP Works and the method we use.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 11:23 am and is filed under Faith, Frank & Marriage, Natural Family Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.