Family life brings with it very many blessings and various trials that you cannot encounter while leading a solitary lifestyle. It reveals those underwater rocks in a person's character that might never make themselves known if there isn't someone nearby who decides to test me for strength, live behind my back and sit on my neck. Mutual love makes any family the center of the world, around which all our interests begin to revolve, and we already here, on earth, begin to learn the delights of Eternal life and understand the advantage of love over its absence.
Love is beautiful in that it is the greatest need and dream of every person, and when this dream comes into your life, regardless of your family status, you receive in this gift everything that your body, soul and spirit need. Although love will not replace the main factors of health and will not give you anything material, it will permeate all your thoughts and feelings and endow you with the most mighty force in the entire Universe. It will be present in every deed of yours and leave its trace in any communication, and even after your death it will continue to exert that influence on your neighbors that was not noticeable during your lifetime.
My wife and I are learning the art of love for each other and see how it brings happiness, joy, peace and such blessings of God's presence into our home that we had not even dreamed of in our boldest prayers.
One day my wife asked me to take her to see a women's doctor, and then walk through the shops with her and help her choose some clothing for me. I prepared myself for this trial and decided to categorically refuse everything unnecessary that the salespeople would offer me.
Having arrived at the doctor's office, I remained waiting for my wife in the car and decided to read another useful book. During the fascinating reading I didn't notice how much time had passed, but when my spouse appeared, I looked at my watch and asked what she had been doing at the doctor's for so long. She was smiling mysteriously somehow and handed me some strange photograph in response, where against a black and white background a dark spot was visible, and said: "Here's a gift for you from the Lord." I turned this sheet in different directions and tried to find with my eyes the familiar outline of some object, but besides the dark spot, I found nothing else. And suddenly it dawned on me! I remembered that my wife had been at the women's doctor, and apparently they had done an ultrasound on her and found inside her what she had come to show me. Vague doubts crept into my heart - could this be an embryo? I looked intently at my wife, then at the photograph, then at my wife again. And then she finished me off completely with her announcement: "Congratulations, dear, we're going to have a baby!" These words sounded to me like thunder from a clear sky. It was difficult to describe those thoughts and feelings that unexpectedly crashed down on me. Somewhere in my soul I was ready for this event and had even talked a lot about it with my beloved, but when I was confronted with the fact, I was simply confused by such a turn of events.
I understood that a new page of interesting trials had opened in our life, which would bring us new knowledge and experiences and reveal to us something so great and inaccessible that we don't know. Although we live in a world where it's customary to have children, and there's nothing special about this, but when you hear about it for the first time, you experience indescribable emotions. At that moment I wanted both to cry and to rejoice, to thank God and to hide from reality. I understood that everything that had been up to this moment had gone into the past, and a new stage of life had begun, which had already changed everything in our plans. And the only thing I was still capable of in this dialogue was to hug my wife and express my joy with the words: "Thank you, dear. I'm so glad!" Perhaps she was expecting something more from me, but I was so shocked by this news that I simply forgot about everything in the world and was very confused.
My spouse took the initiative into her hands and asked to go to the clothing store. I immediately protested: "What clothing? We're going to have a baby! Let's go buy him something!" She understood my condition and informed me that this event would be in about 8 months and there was no need to panic. I gradually began to come to my senses and started thanking God for such a wonderful gift. All the remaining time I only thought about the addition and about how to live now, since I'm completely unprepared to become a dad. Upon arriving home, I suggested holding an extraordinary family council, and we postponed all our current affairs and gathered to discuss what had happened. I was surprised by my spouse's calmness and how logically she expressed her plans for the future, what she expected from me, and where the baby's crib would stand. And I wanted to know who we would have, a boy or a girl, and couldn't decide what would be better. But then I understood that this question was in God's power, and however He decided, let it be so. We will accept whoever He gives us. But fears began to appear in my heart that the Lord might give us a sick or imperfect little person, or there might be a miscarriage. But I also understood that it wasn't worth expressing these concerns aloud. It's better to rely on God's mercy and providence.
Having discussed everything that worried and concerned us, we decided that it would be good to refresh all our knowledge about raising children before this child came into the world.
I had heard somewhere that the time of pregnancy is also an important event for the birth of a healthy child, and decided to thoroughly investigate this question so as not to allow anything that could bring misunderstandings and irreversible consequences into the life and health of my wife and children. I understood that now I needed to ask for twice as much love as before, and to be very delicate and thoughtful.
We also had the question of when a child becomes a living soul. When born, or when conception occurred? It was important to understand this in order to realize when we become parents, and what happens inside the womb. As a result, understanding this question from the example of Jesus's transformation from God into man helped us greatly. At some moment He was no longer in Heaven, and He miraculously became a seed that was placed in Mary's womb. It was precisely at this moment that the Lord became human and a living soul, while remaining God, but not having Divine memory of the past. So, a living soul had settled inside my wife, which took a part of my nature and a part of my spouse's, in order to become our child. This is so interesting! Our likeness will appear in this world, which will inherit our nature, but at the same time will be a completely different and unique being.
We live in the age of information, and therefore it wasn't difficult for us to find those resources that describe in detail and wisely the development of the embryo and how one needs to behave and what to eat during the development of the embryo. The fetus requires many nutrients, which it can only take from the mother's organism, so we decided to thoroughly study this topic and if possible acquire those products that would restore the necessary resources and nourish the growing child.
Questions for Reflection
Please read Ps.126:3-5; Jer.33:3; Gen.1:27-28; Deut.7:13; 28:24; Prov.2:10-13; 10:28; 14:8,10; Luke.1:26-35; Eccl.3:2; Is.65:23 in light of this lesson. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind? What did you understand from this lesson? What do you think men experience when they hear news about the birth of their firstborn? Is it worth studying the principles of child-rearing when you don't have them yet or they have already grown up? Who are children? The appearance of first children — is it joy or stress? Do you think the first child causes positive stress in parents when they learn about his conception? Are you amazed by the greatness of creating a new person in the womb of another person? Do you understand what trust Heaven shows us by giving us the opportunity to bring children into this world? When does a child become a living soul? Why do you think so? In giving us children, does the Lord also place responsibility on us? What does knowledge about how to live and behave during pregnancy give me? Why did the Lord choose specifically woman for giving birth to a child?