My bro-in-law sent me a link to this article, and after reading the first sentence I decided not to read it because I knew it would just be too upsetting. When the first sentence in an article has the words "planned parenthood", you just know that.
Later, I talked about it at length with Sarah, who had talked about it with my mom. It's about an older single Mormon woman who decides that the church is not for her because of its oppressive culture towards sex. So as a 35 or 36 year old, she goes to planned parenthood, gets an IUD, and starts living a "happy" life of promiscuity. My mom and Sarah both agreed that the author's main motivations for writing the piece were to validate her unrighteous actions, which she probably needed to do because she felt so guilty for them.
Anyway, I didn't read that article, but I read THIS one, which was an interesting response by an LDS woman who got divorced and then remarried. She basically says that the point of our existence has to be more than sex, because when that is all it is, our lives are shallow and meaningless. Even people who never get to be married and enjoy the blessings of family life still can lead full lives because the point of this life is to gain a testimony of Christ and to learn to be more like Him.
I read this with Danny. We thought it was a good blog post. I think I mostly agree with her, except maybe that she under-emphasized the importance of getting married and having a family. Thinking about it, it's really easy for me to say, "Sure, I could lose everything, but I'd still have Christ." But the truth is, I actually feel like I would have nothing without my family. But there are plenty of people who can still have full lives, who don't get the chance to marry here, but will later. I guess I just have a hard time relating to that?
What do you think?
(My MIL had a good suggestion for what to do about Dan's night wakings. She says it's a good idea to get up and "plug him" with his binkie, not feed him immediately, sort of train him to sleep a half hour longer, bit by bit. So we'll see how this goes. I'm writing this post between episodes of getting up, wrapping him up, and plugging him, FYI. I'm now on round 5.
The truth is that I kind of actually like middle of the night feedings, it's just when I wake up an hour beforehand and can't fall asleep for an hour (or two) afterward, and end up getting 3-4 hours of sleep total that it is hard. It's the insomnia/hunger pains that I could do without. But if baby wants to nurse, I'm down with it pretty much any time!)
As lovely as it was I was distracted from the message by the prose and the misplaced modifier that made it sound like she was throwing little rocks in her landscape feature with her pixie cut hair.
ReplyDeleteI thought the NY Times writer was rationalizing big time. On the other hand both women deal with the what is perceived as the importance of an active sex life to a modern woman.
They seem to each miss the essence of what the original purpose of sex is and that is to have children. When we have children we are helping others of our heavenly fathers children to receive bodies so they can develop a relationship with Christ. This is only part of the story. We come here to receive the saving ordinances and gain experience so we can tell good from evil.
I can't think of any better way to accomplish those things outside a family setting. I realize that some women and men may never marry, but that doesn't mean they can't be part of a family. I wish someone would have acknowledged that.
After they are married a few years they will learn by their own experience how important in the equation sex is.
You nailed what bugged me, Aunt Yvonne. Something about her separating the importance of family life from our quest to be more like God. And you're right, all of us are part of a family, except the very, very unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteMy comment is that Mormons describing how they're Mormon but not living the faith are saying they no longer believe. So they're not Mormon, except in name.
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with this blog post, though I agree with what has been said, but I'm so glad you found me! I didn't save your blog and I was thinking about you the other day and wondering how you were doing because you guys are awesome!!!!! Congrats on new baby!!! I love the name. I jus had to tell you that. :)
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