Well, I got sidetracked. The blessing from the first beatitude will come tomorrow.
***
I did hear why we were evacuated from our house that one night last week. Someone had broken into a chemical plant near here to steal some chemicals. When leaving he just allowed the chemicals loose. We had to leave our home in the middle of the night because a thief didn't take time to reseal the tanks. What a jerk.
***
We struggled with the issue of contraception and birth control a lot early in our marriage. I can't remember all of our thinking because I didn't write anything down at the time when we were going through it, so I'm trying to go on memory from the struggle we had with it 5 years ago. We started out our marriage on birth control pills, but then we were convicted to stop. To us, it seemed like using birth control was a lack of faith in God. Now people might say that it is unwise to not control the amount of children you have. I can understand that, but I would have to disagree. It appears unwise to do many of the radical things that Jesus calls us to. I would actually argue that it is a wise financial move because of the blessings we will receive from having a large family at retirement.
Another key point to us was the unhealthiness of birth control. It doesn't appear to be good on a woman's body. For me to have my wife take something that might be damaging her body, so that I can control my family size seems to be ridiculous.
This sort of strays from the Bible, but here are two links that deal with the Cahtolic church's stance against contraception and any form of birth control. This site lists all sorts of birth control and their side effects.
Also, we have heard many people wish they had more children. We've never heard a family complain that they have had too many children. God seems to bless families that have given him control of their family planning.
So we decided to not use birth control. I will never teach out of the blue, which I guess I sort of did here, on the subject because I am not 100% convinced. But I will answer people's questions about my beliefs on it if they ask. Anyone that I have encountered that has sought God's will on this subject have always ended up stopping using birth control and contraception. That to me is another convincing argument for it.
Here is a little more info:
Lots of quotes from church fathers in this one:
This one seems to abuse the Scriptures:
An information page against birth control:
A good Catholic article on the subject:
I don't know if I buy the direct Scriptural arguments against birth control, but here is a site that makes them.
That's all for today.
Watch out for the potholes.
