Natural Family Planning, Jean Skirts, & Sketchers

Hey, remember that time I wrote about courting? Yeah, I thought so. This post is kinda similar in that I'll be dispelling myths of jean-skirted, Sketcher-loving women who do Natural Family Planning.

First of all, most people don't know what in the world NFP is. Natural Family Planning is a method of avoiding pregnancy that relies on a woman's natural signals and hormone cycles in order to determine when she is and is not fertile. Instead of pumping your body full of hormones, it uses the cycle of hormones already raging in your body to let you know when intimacy is a go and when it's not so much.

In order to really understand NFP you have to have basic knowledge about hormonal cycles, temperature fluctuations, etc. and be willing to track it.

I won't stamp the pill and other hormonal birth control methods with the condemning "it's abortion" stamp, but I will say for me I feel extremely convicted about taking the pill. Knowing how it works both in my own body & in a textbook setting, I think it would be sinful for me to be on the pill, not because the pill is inherently sinful, but because I have heavy convictions about it for myself. If you take the pill and don't feel convicted, live in grace & keep on taking it! If you take the pill or are on other hormone-based contraceptives, know how it works. So many women are totally okay with popping a little pink pill everyday without even reading a pamphlet on what it's doing to their body.

Basically, the pill has 3 methods of working: 1) preventing ovulation, 2) making the female reproductive tract super acidic, 3) thinning the uterine lining. The first method is typically not controversial. Preventing ovulation is a pre-zygotic barrier, meaning it prevents contact between the egg ('cause its not available to be fertilized) and sperm. The second and third methods are however controversial and heavily talked about because they act in a post-zygotic manner, meaning potentially after fertilization has taken place (and thus are considered by some to be abortive).

NFP takes all the guess work out of birth control by using your body's own hormones, rather than artificial ones. NFP celebrates the female body for one of it's God-given, beautiful purposes: to be hospitable to life.

If you're curious about different levels and methods of contraceptives, check out this awesome sermon by Mark Driscoll!

Review: Adopted for Life

For quite some time now, I've been interested in adoption. I would love nothing more than to have a diverse family that is a testament to God's grace in my own life. A friend of mine recommended this book to me and I read it in a matter of days (which for me is rather impressive). It is powerful and thought-provoking, as the author, Russell Moore, speaks of his own experience adopting his two sons from Russia. The book begins in a somewhat theological manner, and ends with more practical information regarding adoption. Initially I thought I knew all there is to know about the theological aspect of adoption- we're adopted as sons and daughters of God so we should love those less fortunate, like orphans. Simple enough. It wasn't until I read the first parts of this book that I realized how desperately I need to constantly be reminded of my own sinful state and my own beautiful story of adoption.

Moore poses a scenario of adoption that painfully puts things into perspective. He encourages readers to imagine they're adopting a child that is twelve years old, has been in psychotherapy since a very young age, is a pyromaniac, enjoys skinning kittens alive and acts out sexually. Furthermore, he has a long history of violence such as abuse and serial murder. All of his family has ended their life by suicide. Moore ends the scenario by saying "He's you. And he's me." Chilling. But what a beautiful picture of the sinful state (fire, skinned kittens & all) that Christ rescued us from, adopting us into his family!

Moore goes on to say we often think we're naturally born into Jesus' family rather than adopted from a sinful state. I find myself thinking that all too often, thinking I'm worthy of being called a daughter of God and that I'm "good enough" to be a part of His eternal kingdom because of my own abilities. Moore not only speaks to the theory of adoption but reminds readers, like my forgetful self, that we are adopted from a horrid, wretched state, a state from which we couldn't save ourselves.

Because we're adopted, we have a new identity, an identity that isn't tied to the flesh, an identity found in Christ. And since this identity is of Christ, not of the flesh, we can forgo the "I want my kids to look like me" mentality.  If Jesus would have waited until we looked like Him to rescue us, we would still be waiting.

⁴But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" ⁷So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

-Galatians 4:4-7