Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
There's nothing sweeter...
...than children sleeping like angels. And you never know where the sleeping angels may end up around here.
Speaking of sleep, I'm not sure whether I'm jaded or just more experienced, but the littlest angel is now learning how to put herself to sleep. As much as I think the theory of co-sleeping is blissfully wonderful, I learned from the first two that I end up feeling like a monster after a few months. In one sense it is difficult becuase I really enjoy being close to her and her baby-hood seems to be going by so quickly. But on the other hand, I don't have as many moments in which I feel like I'm going to go absolutely crazy. Motherhood would be perfectly blissful if we never needed to sleep or clean or run errands and we could just sit in awe of our children. But there has to be a thorn in the flesh. (Sigh).
Sunday, November 9, 2008
NFP the Catholic form of birth control?
Interestingly, while we were engaged and during the first part of our marriage another couple confronted us with the question, "Isn't Natural Family Planning just the Catholic version of birth control?" This perplexed me and I didn't know quite how to answer. I certainly never thought of it like that before. Perhaps I just needed a few years of marriage under my belt to be able to say, "No it's 'not. It's not at all." (I hope that the next part of this post is not too personal, but I feel compelled to share the beauty of where we find ourselves right now).
With our youngest angel only four months old and with the confusion that breastfeeding can cause with respect to NFP, we've been delving deep into the beauty that periods of abstaining can bring to a marriage. What graces we have been given!! Praise God that He has allowed us to grow so much during this time. At times it has been a temptation to think that couples who use birth control really do have it better. Externally it appears that everything is wonderful for these couples and that their relationship is strong and beautiful, which may be true, especially for those who have not had the Catholic formation we have been blessed to have (a big thanks to our parents for that). However, we've been discussing how in these relationships it's not necessarily a matter of what is, but a matter of what cannot be with the use of birth control, with the withholding of fertility in the union of spouses. In our current situation we've been given the grace to see very, very clearly that NFP is in fact not at all equivalent to birth control. Yes, we are trying to avoid pregnancy, but the approach is rightly ordered because we are using our sexuality according to God's design and not according to our own. All too often we think about our sexuality serving us and our marriage. The Creator of our sexuality in His infinite wisdom knows so much better than we do. He has better plans for us than that. It's been extremely powerful to pray that our sexuality be at the service of God and that it always be pleasing to Him. This has certainly not been easy, and of course sexuality is a very important part of marriage (which is why we are now learning the Creighton method with the hopes that we can be a bit healthier about abstaining). However, there is far more beauty with a rightly ordered sexuality than this poor culture of ours can even begin to understand. I hope that we can be God's vessels to share with others the wonderful joy that it is to use His gifts as they were designed to be used.
With our youngest angel only four months old and with the confusion that breastfeeding can cause with respect to NFP, we've been delving deep into the beauty that periods of abstaining can bring to a marriage. What graces we have been given!! Praise God that He has allowed us to grow so much during this time. At times it has been a temptation to think that couples who use birth control really do have it better. Externally it appears that everything is wonderful for these couples and that their relationship is strong and beautiful, which may be true, especially for those who have not had the Catholic formation we have been blessed to have (a big thanks to our parents for that). However, we've been discussing how in these relationships it's not necessarily a matter of what is, but a matter of what cannot be with the use of birth control, with the withholding of fertility in the union of spouses. In our current situation we've been given the grace to see very, very clearly that NFP is in fact not at all equivalent to birth control. Yes, we are trying to avoid pregnancy, but the approach is rightly ordered because we are using our sexuality according to God's design and not according to our own. All too often we think about our sexuality serving us and our marriage. The Creator of our sexuality in His infinite wisdom knows so much better than we do. He has better plans for us than that. It's been extremely powerful to pray that our sexuality be at the service of God and that it always be pleasing to Him. This has certainly not been easy, and of course sexuality is a very important part of marriage (which is why we are now learning the Creighton method with the hopes that we can be a bit healthier about abstaining). However, there is far more beauty with a rightly ordered sexuality than this poor culture of ours can even begin to understand. I hope that we can be God's vessels to share with others the wonderful joy that it is to use His gifts as they were designed to be used.
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