Been thinking about your Queen Randall edit the entire day, listened to this song a dozen times...thank you from the bottom of my heart for this video I swear <3

my pleasure. i mean it. <3

My unlikely pro-life, pro-science, pro-God views, Part 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I often feel I have more questions than I have answers. But these are my current thoughts on these questions on my mind. I would love to hear your thoughts, if you care to share. May the Lord grant us wisdom to discern through these difficult questions. The reason why I want to write is just to simply organize my thoughts. You are welcome to read. Please don’t feel pressured that my way is the only way you should think. These are simply my thoughts. Ultimately my “opinion” does not matter but God’s word is the only thing that really matters. Let’s keep seeking His will. Search it for yourself! I have a growing list of questions and concerns to work through so thank you to anyone willing to read this so far.

What if you feel called by God to do a certain ministry that requires you to have fewer children?  - I was reading recently in 2 Chronicles 26 how King Uzziah (v 16-21) decides to burn incense on the incense altar even though only the consecrated priests, the descendants of Aaron have the right to offer incense. My CSB describes Uzziah as “he grew arrogant... acted unfaithfully against the LORD his God...” I find that this is a good story to see that God wants to be approached on His terms, as great as humans might have ideas on what it means to serve God may be. Not everyone can be called to the same tasks, even ones that they desire for “sense” God calling them to do. Also if God clearly calls you to a certain task (e.g. becoming a parent for example), you might have to adjust your expectations and sacrifice other seemingly godly desires to fulfill your calling. Though I think it sounds like a really great calling to be in ministry, I don’t think God would call someone to enter in to a certain ministry if it required them to compromise His other instructions. So perhaps missionary callings that involve a level of risk to children might be more suitable to singles, or families who don’t have children for whatever reasons that God ordains. And perhaps for the young family that has intentions to grow their family and be open to the Lord’s will for their fertility... it seems to make sense to consider ministries that your family can fully participate in for that season and to be faithful with the calling of raising your family for the glory of Christ and seeing the family as ministry as well. For some families, the husband feels called to include their family in dangerous missionary journeys, and for some families, the couple agree to separate for the sake of God’s calling for the husband’s life. I’ve also heard of stories where the woman leaves the husband for missionary work. Though I may not agree with some of these decisions, I have not probed enough to understand the reasonings for their decisions. It’s not up for me to judge, but I would will like to seek understanding for how they discerned the see what the fruit of those decisions are. For those ministries that prefer “smaller” families... well I don’t have enough experience to speak into that but I definitely have a lot of probing questions. I also have tons of questions about how others families function in ministry, and how they decide their family planning with their ministry callings, but I’ll have to pick on those families brains when I meet them... there’s really a lot I don’t understand about the missionaries I’ve read about, where they have denied or sacrificed what I consider family responsibilities for the sake of furthering the Gospel to unreached areas. I’m willing to learn but right now my mind is fixed on how do I be faithful in the ministry of family.

If you do choose to reduce the amount of potential children in your family, how do you go about doing that in a way that honours the Lord and does not compromise God’s other commands and intentions for your life? - See here is where my brain is really puzzled. How exactly do families choose to limit their children? Because in my mind I’m walking through a minefield of compromise. I mean if you don’t see any mines in this field I’m looking at, or you see them and you are able to successfully avoid them... great, good for you. I just am troubled and don’t think I can cross this field. - Barrier Methods like condoms and diaphragms- in a pro-life stance, yes you aren’t killing anyone. Great. It is not 100% effective, so... are you saying you are still going to protect that life if life is formed (against your original intentions to not have more children?). Also at the end, I share my attitude concern * - Birth control Pill or IUD- abortafacients are against my Christian conscience, I don’t think any Christian should use any of these methods but I understand there is a level of ignorance people are willing to carry to continue on with their personal decisions. More info here  - Abortion, or morning after pill- I don’t think I have to explain this, but for those Christians who are “pro-choice”... I’ll have to save that for another discussion. But yeah, the 6th commandment is do not kill. Science affirms that life begins at conception. Abortion is the termination of the life of the unborn baby.   - Natural family planning, abstinence- see this is where the “natural” folk and pro-lifers might consider this as a good option. However I do have a concern again about the heart attitude*. In The Birth Control Movie Project, one of the speakers, who I have come to love, Nancy Campbell explains well (I paraphrase from the top of my head) that during the women’s fertile time when she is going to ovulate, it is when her sexual desires are increased. It’s like God designed it to be that way because He wants increase! This is fascinating to me, as I have noticed in the past during my single years, how my emotions, longings and desires would change during my cycle and I would feel such a relief after my period came (I know, TMI, gross period talk, sorry). But to learn this is part of God’s amazing design... I can’t help but think... yay God you are all-wise!! Okay back to my concern about NFP... so if a couple (or either partners in that couple) decides to AVOID sex during a time where the woman is most fertile... it could result in denying either spouse intimacy which is also contrary to Scripture (1 Corinthians 7:1-5). I once was looking up NFP and learned a couple from a blog I used to follow wrote a book about the benefits of NFP. I learned later that they ended up divorcing. One might consider the dangers of NFP and what impact that has on a marriage if at certain seasons you are having to deprive one another... and for what reason? I hope it’s a godly reason! And for those who might consider long-term abstinence as a married couple (does that actually happen?) I guess I don’t fully understand why that couple would get married in light of 1 Corinthians 7 but perhaps there are single for Christ minded people who want to get married and have a partner for Gospel ministry and are willing to live like they are “single”? As long as they don’t forget that when they covenanted with God and their spouse in marriage... there will be marriage responsibilities. Not everyone should get married if they aren’t open or ready for the responsibility of being a husband/wife and father/mother.  - Vasectomy, tubal ligation, hysterectomy- for normal, healthy, functioning body parts... why “fix” something that isn’t broken? I haven’t read too much on the ethics of these procedures but... from what I know some couples experience hormonal changes that can impact mood and intimacy, sometimes the procedures are irreversible and the couple later on wants to have more children and can’t. God gave these body parts to be used for His purposes! 

- Sure you can pull out the “stewardship” argument, but then I would want to ask, what was the thing God gave to us intended for? Voddie Baucham has mentioned frequently “If you don’t know the purpose of the thing, you’re doing to abuse it” (sorry if I misquoted it). What are these reproductive body parts intended by God for? What are my arms and legs meant for? It would be ridiculous for me to purposefully disable myself by cutting off my arms or legs and be physically handicapped but I could say it is for the sake of stewardship (I don’t know, I serve in the handicap ministry and people might get jealous I have functional arms and legs? That sound stupid I know. Or maybe I work in an area where my arms and legs might cause me to stumble... I mean Jesus would support it right?). But yeah it sounds crazy because it is. Yet for some reason if we alter our reproductive parts so they no longer work the way it was intended for, it might be in some minds, be considered “good stewardship”. Because you know, we are living for the kingdom... I have more questions and thoughts about “stewardship” later (e.g. financial, mental, emotional, etc.)

* And ultimately it is the heart attitude is what I am more concerned about. Separating sex from procreation seems to me, to be very unnatural and against God design for sex (which includes "glorify God, bring forth children, express intimacy, provide comfort, and bless the spouse.”- CARM). Seeing children being in the way of the plans you have for your life (or the plans you think God has for your life) doesn’t seem right to me... is this really okay with God? I mean if God was wanting a married couple/family to participate ministry and children would be detrimental to that ministry, God in His wisdom could just make the couple infertile right? I would love to see someone bring up Scriptures that can help me see that this is something exemplary to do. I am boggled by the amount of choices available to people today and the ethics that follow these decisions. 

I understand I know it’s not a simple journey for some people and families who are trying to obey God in other areas of their lives and don’t see the issue I am talking about as being a “primary” one to consider, or may think this compromise is not worth spending so much time on... for me though, if God has brought this concern to light in my life, sometimes when I see others choosing to “compromise” with out much thought, I find it discouraging and tempting that maybe I can just throw my own convictions out of the window. Is it fair to say... brother or sister, please consider that you don’t cause me to stumble? I can imagine a response like “oh, you just follow what God wants you to do, and I’ll follow what God wants me to do”. I can see that happening regarding many decisions in life but regarding the creation of life... I don’t know, it just would be nice if we were all on the same page about what attitude to have about this. I mean think about it, are you aware that in the States, in the late 1800′s contraception was considered illegal? Doesn’t that say something? And apparently in Canada we didn’t have divorce laws until 1968... I would have to research more. I’m just saying... just because something becomes normal for a culture doesn’t mean it was always normal. And if it wasn’t normal before, I would like to know... how did we get here? Was it moral upgrade or downgrade that led us to this kind of normalization?

Inquisitive Michelle