Dear Betty,
I appreciate so much that you took the time to respond to my email. I truly wasn't expecting a response. I wasn't aware that Last Days Ministries had a "statement" on this topic:) and I'm so glad that it's something being thought about and prayed about more often.
I did have one other comment right now, and would it be alright if I wrote you again with further information if it comes up? I read your email a couple of times before it really hit me. In the second paragraph of Melody's letter, the first sentence read:
"It seems the central issue for Christians in using birth control is whether doing so is not "trusting the Lord."
I don't think that this is the central issue for me. The central issue for me is one of the heart. We live in a humanist society and *life* is daily devalued. My concern is that I believe that our hearts are hard towards children. If children are really a blessing, and if we believed Malachi 2:15 "Hast not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking godly offspring" ... Then wouldn't using birth control be the exception and not the rule? My little ones are growing up in a Christian community where if they go to premarital counseling, the question will probably come up "What form of birth control will you be using?" This hard heartedness and acting on the belief that children are an avoidable affliction and not blessings from God ~(maybe having in mind the things of man and not the things of God? Mark 8:33 )...*this* would be the real issue for me...
Lovingly,
Paige