NFP

Yesterday, I started looking at natural family planning . . . I can't believe I'm old enough for this! I mean, i know my driver's license and birth certificate indicate that I'm almost 24 years old, but I still feel like I'm 17. I just can't get into my head that I will actually be married, living with my husband, and planning a family!

For all who don't know or understand what Natural Family Planning (NFP) is, I will briefly explain. According to nfpandmore.org, "NFP is a way of following God’s plan for achieving and/or avoiding pregnancy. It consists of ways to achieve or to avoid pregnancy using the physical means that God has built into human nature." In plain English, it is charting the wife's cycle and signs of fertility in order to know when to "do the marriage dance" (as Chika would say), whether you are trying to get pregnant or avoid getting pregnant. The website also explains that, "Couples seeking to avoid pregnancy practice chaste abstinence during the fertile time of her cycle."

It's mildly amusing to me to see people's reactions when this topic comes up. But it makes SO much sense to me, even without getting into the countless reasons contraception is bad for a woman's body and it's connections with breast cancer. God didn't ask us to live a chaste life until we get married. We are still supposed to be chaste inside of marriage. Marital chastity is just different from single chastity. Lust is a sin, whether it be inside or outside of marriage. The ring that will be on my finger in a little over a year is not my free ticket to as much sex as I want. It is not a free ticket to using my husband as "a means to an end". It is a promise to love and cherish him for the rest of my life. To respect his dignity as a human being. It makes so much sense for God to have planned things the way he did. That there would be times in our married lives that we have to live in abstinence if we are unable to have another child at that time. In that time is when I imagine we will learn the most about respecting and not misusing the gift of sex. It is in that time that the virtue of temperance (moderation) will be strengthened. It is in this marital chastity that I see the most respect for God, his gift of sex, and my husband. I am so excited to embark on this journey!

On that day I will make a covenant with my husband to give ourselves to each other in marriage, to honor each other as man and wife for the rest of our life, and to accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church. I cannot wait for the second gift that comes from sex (the first is bonding), Children! I'm a little terrified of the childbirth process, but I'm excited to start a family!

So, why am we already talking about NFP and babies? Because in order to understand and know my cycle, it takes many months to see the regularity. Ergo, I will soon be charting my cycle, temperature . . . and other stuff daily. :-\ Maybe this will make me feel old and like I am actually getting married! haha. :)