I'm curious MoS: if sex is meant for procreation, do you go bareback? Surely condoms interfere with procreation and so shouldn't be used, right?
And why don't you trust in the power of prayer and the will of God to prevent pregnancy? Surely he would if it were not part of his divine plan.
It's interesting that you ask from a perspective of pregnancy prevention. Nothing wrong with that, but our primary method of pregnancy prevention has always been self-control in the bedroom, but yes we have used condoms in the past (I'm not a Catholic by the way). I don't normally speak about my sex life LOL, but it's cool. We have a great sex life and we haven't used condoms in 7 years or so, but we don't always "just have sex" either. Out of respect for my wife and my marriage I'm not going to go into details (certainly you can understand this). As I stated previously, sex in a marriage (between a man and woman) is certainly meant for the purposes of procreation, but it's also meant for the expression of love and for the purpose of pleasure.
Sure, condoms would interfere with procreation if one desired to have a child so you probably shouldn't use one if you desire to have a child LOL. Still, the world we live in is not filled with believers in Christ that utilize self-control in the bedroom. Given the prevelance of sexually transmitted diseases condoms help prevent the spread (of course you know this).
God has empowered us to proactively engage in all facets of our lives and make appropriate choices and utilize the tools at our disposal to live our lives in accordance with his will. As believers we seek God's will and receive guidance via the Holy Spirit to make appropriate decisions. As believers in Christ we can be completely faithful and trust in him yet still proactively utilize manmade means that aligns with his will....we defer to the Holy Spirit for guidance in utilizing tools appropriately. I sometimes come back to the following classic joke:
A man is caught outside in a torrential downpour and the area begins to flood. The water rises to his waist yet he stands there praying in the water for the Lord to make the rain stop and flood waters to recede. A man in rowboat comes by and says, "Sir, get in the boat!" The praying man says "No, the Lord will stop the rain and the flood waters will recede....the Lord will protect me." The water rise to his neck and he continues to pray. A second man in a rowboat comes by and says, "Dude! Jump in the boat!" Again the praying man says, "No, the Lord will stop the rain and the flood water will recede....I'll be fine." The water is now too deep to stand and the man is treading water, but continues to pray. A helicopter flies by and lowers a ladder and says, "Climb up sir, we'll get you out of here!" The praying man refuses and says, "No the Lord will stop the rain and the flood will recede...I'll be fine." Eventually the praying man tires from treading water and drowns in the flood waters. Upon entering heaven he approaches God and asks, "Lord I faithfully prayed that you would stop the rain and stop the flooding and save my life." To which the Lord responds, "I sent you two rowboats and a helicopter."
Anyways...
We've done our best to structure our lives in accordance with God's will so that if we were blessed with children that we were in the best place to love, care and provide for them. We can't anticipate everything in life LOL, but we do our level best to seek God's will for ALL aspects of our lives. My wife and I actively tried to get pregnant for 2.5 years and then the Lord blessed us with our daughter.
When we pray we pray that God's will is done in our lives. We give him praise, we worship and we sometimes repent and seek him to right the course of our lives. We pray for others and we seek his will. Honestly that's always the gist of our prayers.
If it begins to rain outside we don't pray that God will keep us dry or stop the rain, we go look for shelter from the rain because he's empowered us to be able to do so.
