Christian Family Planning Network: Supporting Natural Forms of Family Planning
I’m really excited today to introduce the Engaged Marriage community to a wonderful online resource that is helping to educate and support the practice of natural forms of family planning. As you may know, Bethany and I are quite passionate about Natural Family Planning and all the goodness it’s brought to our marriage.
Well, Stephanie Berman is the creator of an awesome resource called Christian Family Planning Network. At her site, you can become part of a community to learn and practice either NFP or the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). FAM is essentially similar to NFP in that it involves the tracking of a woman’s fertility cycle. Very basically, the difference is that us NFP users abstain from sex during the fertile times, while FAM users (often Protestant Christians who have no moral objections to contraceptives) use barrier contraceptives during those times and continue to have sex.
I think you’ll learn a lot about this important topic by reading Stephanie’s guest post today, and I encourage you to go check out the Christian Family Planning Network. Thanks Stephanie for accepting my invitation to share your good work with our community!
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Natural Family Planning Awareness Week
If you’ve been part of our community at Engaged Marriage for very long, you know that my wife and I are big believers in Natural Family Planning (NFP) and its positive impact on marriage. One of our goals is to spread the word about NFP and simply let people know that its a viable option for planning their family without the need for artificial contraception.
Well, this week is actually Natural Family Planning Awareness Week! In honor of the occasion, I am providing links to all of the NFP-related posts that have been featured on this site so far.
I am planning to assemble these links on their own page and highlight it as a resource called Natural Family Planning: A Handbook for the Curious. I’d like to hear from you so I can cover the right information in that resource.
In the comments below, can you please offer suggestions for other NFP-related topics that you’d like to see covered here at Engaged Marriage?
Previous NFP posts for your enjoyment:
Natural Family Planning: 5 Good Reasons You Haven’t Tried It
Natural Family Planning has its challenges.
I’ve shared the story of our journey to Natural Family Planning (NFP) and made a really big deal about the benefits of NFP for marriage. I’ve shared an informational video, explained what Natural Family Planning is in my own words, and talked about how technology can work with such a natural method of planning a family. I’ve even encouraged an artsy-fartsy Protestant woman to share her own thoughts on NFP.
Do I love Natural Family Planning? Yep, guilty as charged.
But I also understand why NFP is practiced by less than 5% of couples in their child-bearing years. If Natural Family Planning were the easy choice, everyone would use it, right?
Well, probably not, but I recognize the challenges of using NFP because we live with them every day. Engaged Marriage is a place for no-B.S. information on topics that effect your marriage, and your family planning choices are certainly a big issue.
And so, in the interest of fairness and full disclosure, I present to you the top five challenges of using Natural Family Planning.
The Challenges of Practicing Natural Family Planning
1. NFP is Misunderstood by Others
The Best Kept Secret About Mind-Blowing Sex
Do you know how to have sex?
I’m going to assume the answer is yes. After all, on the surface, sex is a simple act of “Insert Tab A into Slot B.” And if you listen to the incessant messages thrown at us by our sex-obsessed culture, there’s not a lot more to it.
Sure, the Internet is full of information about sexual techniques and supposed “secrets” to amazing sex. There’s certainly no shortage of advice out there on how to get the woman of your dreams into bed and drive your man crazy in the sack.
However, these messages always leave out the real secret to an incredible sex life.
Sure Sex is Fun…
Sex is one of the most physically enjoyable activities that we can experience, and God designed it that way for our benefit. After all, God wants us to have great sex!
The key though is to not limit your thoughts on sex to the obvious physical pleasure that it provides. That’s certainly how our society treats sex, and it’s easy to see this limited view all around us. Just look at any funny movie, popular magazine cover or any mainstream “relationship” website.
Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor: A Review Based On Our Experiences
If you have had trouble conceiving a baby or just want to understand your fertility cycle better, you may have heard of the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. My wife and I bought one last fall with the intent of using it initially to help us get pregnant and then later as an additional tool in our practice of Natural Family Planning.
Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for a long-term review, we were blessed to conceive our third child the first month that we used the fertility monitor. However, we learned all about it, gained some experience using it, and I even made my first YouTube video to show the world what comes in the box when you buy a Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor!
How Does the Fertility Monitor Work?
In the most basic sense, the monitor uses urine samples to identify days of High Fertility and Peak Fertility. Obviously, if you have sex on those days, especially the one or two Peak Fertility days, your chances of achieving pregnancy are greatly improved.
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I'm Dustin, the guy behind Engaged Marriage. I'm living and loving the crazy life of a young husband and Dad.
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