Infertility Encouragement from Sarah's LaughterSample

Choices

Once you discover that your desired pregnancy will be delayed, amazing things happen. Pregnant women show up everywhere you look. You’ll begin to notice comments you’ve never paid attention to before:

“I just think about my husband and the morning sickness starts.”

"You're lucky you don't have kids."

When you realize that you aren’t quite as fertile as the other branches of your family tree, you’ll find out within one weekend that your best friend, your co-worker, and your sister-in-law are all pregnant. Everyone is pregnant. Everyone but you.

As you stand face-to-face with the issue of infertility, many choices are ripped away from you. The choice of when to have children, perhaps the choice of how many children to have, the choice of keeping your problem private.

Do we consult a doctor?

How far do we go with treatment?

What do we give up to pay for medical treatment?

Do we adopt?

However, there is a crucial area where you do have a choice. You can choose joy, or choose to allow infertility to dictate your mindset and attitude. Christ came that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). We’re told in Philippians 4:4 to rejoice, and the writer is so adamant about it that he repeats himself: “Again, I say rejoice!”

Does this mean that you should never cry or feel down? Absolutely not. Our Savior was a man full of emotions and the Bible even says He was acquainted with grief and bore our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4). It does mean that you can choose to let Christ carry those sorrows, and choose the joy that runs deeper than simple situational happiness. Peace so strong that it doesn’t make sense is yours for the taking. You can choose to accept the offer of abundant life provided by Jesus Christ Himself, or choose a life of despondency, jealousy and discouragement.

Easy? Not always. But the choice, my friend, is yours.