NFP Is A Burden

[condan]

SteveG:

OK, first apologies for my lame attempt at levity in an otherwise great thread. When I saw SmokeBoy’s comment, I just couldn’t pass up the chance.
…
NFP - A day in the life​

beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep.
97.6, Uh oh the thermal shift must have begun.
I don’t think we are ready for another yet.
Oh well, there goes tonight’s fun

Off to work I go,
To make our family some money.
I make my daily call to home,
I ask, ‘How’s your mucus honey?’

‘It’s stretched about 6 inches.’
I guess the verdict’s in it’s true.
Ovulation is imminent
The hazards of…Phase II

I walk in the door and she gives me a look,
She has THAT gleam in her eye
My resistance is quickly breaking down.
After all, I am just a guy.

The kids finally in bed, all’s quiet now.
Queit? Maybe it’s a sign.
She aks me for a ‘back rub’.
Oh well, time to accept another gift from the divine.

…OK, I know it stinks, but if you can do better over your lunch break, feel free.

I think its really sweet.

 

[SteveG]

Ham1:

Sorry Steve, but any songs or poems that use the word “mucus” are inherently bad.

Actually, it’s funny…good job

I actually TRIED to work mucus in. Too bad I couldn’t think of a rhyme for mucus. kinda like oranges.

oranges, smoranges
mucus, smucus
(for all you HR Puff n Stuff fans out there)

 

[Smoke_Boy]

Hammy: Nice follow up to Kevin’s post - I agree completely!

SteveG: I’d like to produce that song on my new Thermal Shift music label - Have your people talk to my people. Funny stuff!!!

 

[Ham1]

Hmmmm…Hammy…I like that…I may have to change my name

 

[LastPew]

Is NFP the exception? Does the Church say either way?

I am just thinking here a bit, and I see NFP should be the norm hands down. NFP is a method of knowing your fertility. NFP is good for any couple, regardless if the couple wants a child or not. As a practice NFP can give clues that something may be wrong in the women’s fertility, and by default in the man’s fertility (if trying to conceive but cannot even on the wife’s fertile days for example).

Of course, there can be something wrong with the intention of using NFP for the wrong reasons, but using NFP in itself is not wrong.

Remember the Garden of Eden, Adam “knew” his wife, who is to say that part of the knowing was not about her fertility.

So I can see the argument that NFP is the norm.

 

[Ham1]

I suppose one could use NFP and not abstain, but I’m not really sure what point there would be. Using NFP to avoid conception is decidedly NOT the norm. If it were, then there would not be the requirement that it be used for serious reasons. Also, if it were the norm, then it would be a natural inclination and people would have been practicing it for thousands of year. IF NFP were the norm, the Church would teach the conditions under which one is permitted NOT to use it, rather than the conditions under which one IS permitted to use it.

No, clearly the norm is that married couples have marital relations when they are so inclined and, in doing so, cooperate with the creation of a new soul by God.

NFP is not a bad thing as many of us have clearly stated. It’s a remedy, an exception to be used when, due to serious reasons, a couple cannot welcome a new child into the family.

I hope that helps to clarify.

 

[LastPew]

Ham1:

I suppose one could use NFP and not abstain, but I’m not really sure what point there would be. Using NFP to avoid conception is decidedly NOT the norm. If it were, then there would not be the requirement that it be used for serious reasons. Also, if it were the norm, then it would be a natural inclination and people would have been practicing it for thousands of year. No, clearly the norm is that married couples have marital relations when they are so inclined and, in doing so, cooperate with the creation of a new soul by God.

NFP use is good for any couple (even women not married) b/c knowledge of the body is good. Our bodies are so designed that knowledge can be attained by studying them. So a woman who knows NFP can learn so much about their own body. In fact, the knowledge of NFP can lead one to understand from a biological point of view that fertility is so detailed and this can lead the person to understand God must have designed this. NFP in itself is wonderful source of knowledge, I am not even talking about trying to pregnant or abstaining, I am commenting just on the glory of understanding the great gift of fertility. That is why I consider it a norm, not the exception.

I don’t agree with the statement that b/c it wasn’t used in ancient times, then it must not be the norm. The reason is b/c the fertility cycle has always be consistent even when we did not know how it worked. If I use the example of gravity, we may not have always understood gravity, but it has always been the norm.

I don’t know if having relations whenever so inclined is what God wants from us anyway. I don’t think God works that way in other avenues, so why here. As a person created to love, the Lord wants us to choose Him, to choose to receive the fruit of marital intercourse. So the couple who uses NFP cooperates with God’s plan b/c they are using the very body and system that He established. And for the couple who uses NFP to get pregnant, how even greater the act is b/c they know they are allowing God to create in that act (I know, God acts even in non-fertile times), but the act seems to take on an even greater meaning.

I guess, the way I see it is: God wants us to be a responsible union and parents. He wants us to welcome new life from the initiating act of intercourse, He wants our complete and free decision to raise and educate life that He sends, and I think all these are better if the married couple freely accepts new life when they know they can achieve pregnancy, it is as if they are directly cooperating with God.

Is it a sin to have marital relations whenever a couple is so inclined? No (assuming marriage and the act is chosen by husband and wife).

Anyways, I know this is long. I have enjoyed the thinking and reading of this topic.