Faith in His Plan

This week in Family Studies I was incredibly intrigued by what we talked about on Wednesday in class. There's something that struck a chord with me when we were talking about being held responsible for the children that you choose not to have. I've always known that it takes a great deal of prayer between the husband, wife, and God, to know when and if you should have more children, or if your family is complete. What I'd never thought about before was what happens when we use our agency to choose to ignore God's will.

Brother Williams was explaining to us that if we choose not to have more children, whether through preventing pregnancy, abortion or adoption, we will be held accountable for those children. There's a reason that Heavenly Father has planned for certain children to come into our lives. Brother Williams shared a story in class that I won't retell here, but it really got me thinking about how little we know, and how well our Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. It's really remarkable.

That being said, I know that there's no way we'd be held responsible for the children that we've tried so hard to keep as our own. For over a year now I've been following the blog of the Sullengers (click on the name, it's a link!). They lost their daughter Preslee in an accident 14 months ago. We don't know exactly why some children come into our lives and are taken so early, but we know that there is a purpose that they were here. Another couple, the Webster's, had a daughter who they lost also. Their stories are both so heartbreaking, but so inspiring.

What I learned in class this week is that there's a great deal of difference between choosing not to have children, and children being taken from you just too early. When we prayerfully approach our Heavenly Father as a couple, we can know when and how many children to have. The hard part is putting our trust in Him, and knowing that we don't know exactly what's in store.

Faith is the most important part.