The subject on my mind is Life. It seems to me that there are so many ideas and opinions about what life really is. Questions like "Does life start at conception?" and "What constitutes life?" are very politically charged as so many are in the back and forth between the opinions of two camps labeling themselves pro-life and pro-choice. I am not, at any point, going to engage in a debate about this, or tell another person what to think. I do, however, think that this is something that every person should think long and hard about.
Which is what I have found myself doing a lot recently. That is when I stumbled upon a blog post about that put things in a very interesting light for me. It is titled "Why My Support for Abortion Was Based on Love...and Lies." You can read it in its entirety here. The most interesting part for me was at the end where she talked about the societal views about sex:
"Kids seemed like an optional add-on that a couple may or may not choose to add to their marriage, as long as they deemed that caring for offspring wouldn't ruin their ability to have fun together -- which was, as far as I could tell, the main purpose of marriage."
She continues:
"Sex could not have been more disconnected from the concept of creating life.The message I'd heard loud and clear was that the purpose of sex was for pleasure and bonding, that its potential for creating life was purely tangential, almost to the point of being forgotten about altogether. This mindset laid the foundation of my views on abortion. Because I saw sex as being closed to the possibility to life by default, I thought of pregnancies that weren't planned as akin to being struck by lightning while walking down the street: Something totally unpredictable, undeserved, that happened to people living normal lives."
As I thought about this, I realized that an important distinction, at least, as I experienced it growing up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, was that most of the time when sex was discussed, the all important word procreation was used. Specifically the POWER of procreation. The power to bring into being. I think that this word carries a lot more weight than just saying sex. It reminds me to think deeper, to think higher. To think of the godliness of this power. That this very power resides within me, a normal, everyday person, is both amazing and profound.
On lds.org I found a page titled ""Today's Family: Protect the Power to Create Life." It explains that Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles teaches that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are creators by nature and that They have “entrusted us with a portion of Their creative power and provided specific guidelines for the proper use of that sacred ability to create life and establish an eternal family.” He continues, “How we feel about and use that sacred power in this life will determine in large measure whether additional creative power will be ours in the life to come.”
“The most sacred of all our divine powers is to become a co-creator with Heavenly Father in providing physical bodies for His spirit sons and daughters and in establishing a righteous and Christ-centered family,” Elder Bednar says. “Nothing is more holy; nothing deserves more reverence; nothing is more central to the plan of happiness.”
I think I should back up and tell you that Marc and I have found out that we are expecting our third child, which is due September 7th. (Pause for a minute and soak that one in.)Tuesday I went to my first doctor's appointment. I wanted to be on top of things better this time around, since on my last I didn't go until I was 20 weeks along. We had been getting ready to move and I didn't want to have to switch doctors. Silly me. At this appointment I was expecting all of the usual new patient questions. The paperwork. The blood work. What I wasn't expecting was an ultrasound. With my other two kids, the one and only ultrasound that I ever had was the one where I found out their gender. So you can imagine how surprised and excited I was. When the screen showed what looked like a little bean I gasped out loud. I even saw its little heart beating away. Though this isn't my baby (a pic from google images) it looked like this:
I had this instant rush of maternal feelings: an urge to love, protect, and nurture this tiny little life. I felt humbled, once again, to create life with my husband. More importantly, I have the sacred privilege to be a co-creator with my Father in Heaven. I will provide a body for this little one, and He will provide the spirit, of which he is already the father, as He is of my spirit.
I know that not everyone would be as awed or feel the same feelings that I did. But in that moment I truly felt that maybe I am gaining a little understanding about the most creative thing I am capable of. As I have learned, it isn't my writing, or anything else that I "come up with". It is the ability and willingness to bring into being another person.
To leave this on a little less serious note, we hope this one is a girl. Cross your fingers for me.
