Question from a reader: My wife and I do not feel called to have children. I’m 42, and she’s 40. We both have fulfilling career ministries and I’m wondering about getting a vasectomy.

Links for those interested in learning more about natural family planning.  

Question from a reader: I believe children are precious to God, and I would never use a form of birth control that could potentially kill a baby. But all of these arguments are confusing. My husband and I are praying God would give us convictions for our own family when it comes to family size. We don’t want to just follow what the world says to do (i.e. use the pill, stop having children for convenience reasons, have a vasectomy when we are “done" having children). What advice would you give me?

Let me first say, before I speculate, what I know for sure. As I’m sure you know, Scripture teaches that it is God that opens and closes the womb, and that children are a blessing of the Lord (Psalm 127).

If you are on the pill for medical reasons, then it would be wise to use a nonabortive type of birth control such as NFP, condom, and diaphragm (assuming you’re married?). But my understanding is that there are other medical concerns with the pill.

I have been on the pill for purely therapeutic reasons (prevention of an ovarian cyst from growing), not merely for birth control, or the regulation of my cycle or the easing of cramps. 

This is a tough issue, and the toughest part is that we’ve grown up in a society forged by people like Margaret Sanger, and the church has largely bought into a selfish, anti-child, population-control mentality.

The following is a conversation between two Christians who have different viewpoints on the issue of birth control. 

As a prolife physician who shares Randy Alcorn and your concerns about "birth control" pills. Some of my thoughts...