We haven’t had any new babies around here since Baby Braveheart was born 3 1/2 years ago, and we just celebrated his no-more-diapers party the other day (it’s a Friedrich family tradition when a child is able to stay dry all night long). My 12-year-old mini muffin is begging us to adopt a baby girl. After I coach a dear friend through the birth of her sixth baby next month (Lord willing), I may be asking for numbers of good adoption agencies .

Even though I’m not currently in a “family way,” I am always interested in stories about babies, childbirth, and motherhood. Not long ago, I reread P.D. James’s dystopian novel, The Children of Men, about a not-too-distant-future world where all the men have become sterile and no babies are born. It’s a chilling commentary on the euthanistic mindset and the Frankensteinian mess that can occur when technology which purports to improve life runs amok. The article I recently linked about artificial wombs shows, however, is that truth is often stranger than fiction.

It can be very hard to distinguish between helpful medical technology and procedures which are fraught with the danger of sinful applications. Often, both possibilities are present, leaving the appropriate application in the hands of those who usually rely on humanistic pragmatism rather than godly principle when life and death decisions must be made.

I don’t purport to have all the answers, but I think we ought to be asking a lot of hard questions before jumping on the bandwagon of technological breakthroughs in the areas of reproduction and women’s health. Two articles I ran across today reminded me of this. The first discusses a new book about the potential risks associated with tubal ligations. According to the article, it is estimated that a million women will undergo that procedure this year. The other article concerns the trend of elective Caesareans—planning to have a C-section when there is no medical need to do so. C-sections have increased 40 percent since 1996, to 29 percent of all births! The fact that they are increasing did not surprise me, but the quotes from a couple of medical providers who felt that elective surgical childbirth was neither a negative nor a positive option (in other words, whatever the customer wants is right), was shocking to me.

There are many good reasons a woman may need a C-section, but to choose surgery over natural childbirth because of convenience or fear seems to me another leap of faith in medical technology due to lack of faith in God’s sovereignty over the womb.

Further reading:

Top Ten Birth Ideas
Without Moral Limits: Women, Reproduction, and Medical Technology by Debra Evans
MalePractice: How Doctors Manipulate Women by Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn

I do believe that in order to combat lies, we need to know a bit about the faulty assumptions of the opposition, but it is far, far more important to not only deeply understand the truth, but to deeply believe it, too. It’s also important to remember that traditional values, character training, and morality are meaningless concepts without the rich soil of God’s word from which they must spring in order to blossom into fruitful principles by which we can live our lives. Moral paganism is still paganism.

So why are so many Christians content to rest on the pagan laurels of outgunning, outspinning, and outarguing the peddlers of cultural corruption? Logic can be a useful tool, but let’s not forget Whose battles we are fighting, and that the weapons of our warfare are spiritual, which means we need to be careful about depending on our cleverness. The Word of God is powerful…that’s not just a trite saying. Don’t make the mistake of taking it lightly.

That’s the point in John Lofton’s article about the misguided tactics being used at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and by others who purport to fight for the right in the cultural battles of the day.

This attitude—that God needs help from our shining intellects to make His will be done on earth—is becoming more and more pervasive. It’s evident in everything from neo-conservative political follies to homeschooling stage parents who are anxious to push their children to the heights of academic achievement. But God doesn’t “need” our help to achieve His purposes. He does, however, require that we have no other gods before Him, including our fail-safe strategies. He expects His people to use the gifts and talents He has given to His glory. There’s no need to hide our lights under a bushel to engage in Trojan Horse, stealth infiltration of the enemy’s strongholds.

Let’s boldly proclaim God’s truth wherever we go and teach our children to do the same. Let’s begin each day, the day that the Lord has made, by getting back to basics, acknowledging that whether debating public policy or which book to read next, all belongs to God and is to be evaluated according to His absolute truth. If that offends some people (or amuses them), shake the dust off your feet and move on, but don’t give up.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ~I Corinthians 3:6

I’m not fussy about germs. I don’t follow my children around wiping down doorknobs and faucets (except when the dreaded stomach virus invades our home, then it doesn’t seem to do much good no matter how careful I am). I’m afraid that I even often forget (gasp!) to make them wash their hands before they eat. Many times I’ve groaned when I realized those little mitts holding the peanut butter sandwich are grubby little mitts.

Perhaps you read the recent news vindicating my tolerance for germs and grubbiness? I’m such a good mother. Letting my children get dirty and allowing the dog to sleep on their beds is contributing to their future immune system health:

The new approach to allergy prevention and treatment arises from a paradox. Known as the hygiene hypothesis, it suggests that growing up in cities and suburbs, away from fields and farm animals, leaves people more susceptible to a host of immune disorders, including allergies and asthma.

But just when I’m ready to throw out the antibacterial soap and the Lysol, then I read something that makes me want to obsess over handwashing more than Howard Hughes (and don’t tell, but there are reasons why I am so possessive of my laptop computer). I recently re-linked a fascinating article on avoiding the germs you literally pick up on your feet in the hospital, and the author has just published part two, Shoes II. There are some scary bacterial critters crawling around in surprising places.

The author attributes the germ invasion to some gruesome Frankensteinian medical practices. He mentions the erroneous designation of “brain death,” and since it’s a little over a week since the anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s murder, here’s a link to a short post I wrote in my early days, about organ donation and just what makes a person’s body really, truly dead. It’s a subject about which there is a lot of confusion, fed by much medical double-speak. As always, God must be the arbiter of life and death decisions, not your friendly neighborhood bioethicist.

A blonde walked into a library and said, “Can I have a burger and fries?”

(for Gracie and Cindy)

I once read that homeschoolers account for half the books checked out of public libraries. I don’t remember where I read it and can’t find anything to substantiate this impressive statistic, but from anecdotal evidence I’m pretty sure that homeschoolers like books—the more the better.

It’s no secret that I am not a big fan of the idea of tax-funded libraries and that I would like to see a return to private or subscription libraries. When we finally put together our dream library (did you take the video tour during the wee hours of my blogathon?), I mostly weaned myself from the public library, though I am still on speaking terms with my many friends who still darken its doors. I know that I am blessed to have my eclectic book collection, acquired over many, many years, as well as a place to store it, thanks to the generosity and vision of my husband.

When you visit the library, what kinds of things do you check out?
How often do you go?
Do you take your children with you?
Do you have any good library tales to tell?

I started a library at my church which includes many books for homeschooling families. If you are interested in starting a church library, I ran across this website tonight (looking for that elusive statistic), with some good information about how to go about it.

Books! They keep me up late. They sometimes wake me up, summoning me from my bed in the middle of the night. My best friends. My worst enemies…Because every book I see says “come hither and I will make you wise.” I have now read so many of them they cannot live up to their allurements. Yet all librophiliacs (book lovers, and I did not make this one up) are on the make for that one scintillating paragraph that hides in the deep interior of some book yet to be read. To put it more simply, I’m a sucker for a great read! I always feel the next book I pick up will be the one great book I dare not miss. ~Calvin Miller

Kim, mother to many daughters and daughter to a mother who bore many children, knows a lot about funny moments with children. A sense of humor is integral to raising a large family. In His mercy, God seems to abundantly supply many smiles to smooth the inevitable bumps. Knowing this truism, Kim has had the brilliant idea of creating a Carnival of Kid Comedy to capture some of those Kodak moments for us all to enjoy. Scroll down to read my contribution this time.