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| What can happen when you say "Yes"... |
Blogger's Note: The links below are to good stuff, but not necessarily kids' stuff. Use discretion.
Probably the most transformation part of my conversion to Catholicism -- not just going to church on Sunday, but full-tilt "this is who I am and how I try to live" conversion -- has been the reorientation of my thinking on the topics of marriage, sexuality, and procreation. See, the Catholic Church is perhaps the one institution on Earth that has refused to divorce these three things from each other...and when Jodi and I were preparing for marriage, I was not entirely on board with that.
In the years since, my thinking has changed -- and along with it, my life, my marriage, my family, my entire conception of who I'm called to be.
Now Jodi and I speak at retreats for engaged couples, sharing with frankness how we were, in fact, where they are -- crazy in love, uncertain about parenthood, frightened by the Church's teachings, and unready to "risk" a baby. (What an awful phrase, in retrospect.) We share the Truth we've come to know as best we can -- but I'm always looking for new ways of going about it. And once in a while, I stumble across really good stuff.
So -- if you're struggling to understand or explain the Church's teachings marriage and sexuality, check out these links:
- NFP Doesn't Work...You Have So Many Kids!: Read your Genesis: fertility is the original blessing from God -- and if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it! This blog post hits the nail on the head with humor and truth to spare.
- How Premarital Sex Rewires the Brain: a simple, biology-based explanation for why relationships that get too serious too quickly last too long, crash so hard, and hurt so bad.
- After Steubenville: 25 Things Our Sons Need to Know About Manhood: a mother's poetic and heart-wrenching response to the teen sexual assault that made national headlines.
Not long ago, an old friend asked if I still had big plans for my career, as a writer, or maybe running for office. He had known me years before when I used to daydream about such possibilities. I told him that these days, if I raise my sons to respect women and my daughters to respect themselves, I'll have done alright.
Some kids are too young to hear this sort of material -- but as parents, when the time is right, we've got to share it. I firmly believe it's the only way we can redeem the culture. I'm grateful that, judging from the links above, others feel the same.
Labels: faith, family, humor, love, marriage, pregnancy, work, writing
