Talking About Hard Things

I remember when I first got married I was mortified to even think about talking about the three letter word with my husband. I thought intimacy was just something that happened and we just shouldn't talk about it. Well, I have had to overcome that and we get to talk about it today!

First of all let's review why we have sex (yep! There, I said it!) in marriage. We do it to become one in a relationship. It is to gain closeness and understanding. And let's be honest when y husband and I are more intimate, well we fight less!

We also do it for a connection with God. Jeffery Holland said, "sexual intimacy is... symbolic of a union between mortals and dieter between otherwise ordinary and fallible humans uniting for a rare and special moment with God himself and all the powers by which he gives life in heir wide universe of ours..."

As we have sex with one another we strengthen our bond as a couple both emotional, and spiritually. It is a way that we are able to express our love for our spouses. McCarthy and McCarthy spoke about the positive benefits of having sex while married. They said,
"1. Sexual interaction is a healthy component of marriage and need not be a source of negative feelings.
2. Married persons deserve to feel good about their bodies and to view sexual expression as a normal, healthy part of their marriage.
3. A primary component of marital sexuality is giving and receiving pleasure-oriented touching in the context of an intimate, committed, and divinely supported relationship. As such, it requires relaxation and focus on the other person as well as on one's own pleasure.
4. Sexuality should be expressed in a way that enhances you intimate, marital relationship and bonds you together.
5. Couples should strive to create a "we" relationship where both partners' sharing and pleasure is important as opposed to one person individually focused on what she or he will get out of the experience."

The last purpose of intimacy is to procreate. We do this to pass on our legacy to the next generation. In the plan of happiness we learn that we must be born on this earth with a body in order to return to our Father in Heaven, well the only way to do this is by procreating and bringing children into this world.

How do we decide when to have them? How many to have and all these other important questions. Dallin H. Oaks said, "How many children should a couple have? All they can care for! Of course, to care for children means more than simply giving them life. Children must be loved, nurtured, taught, fed, clothed, housed, and well started in their capacities to be good parents themselves."
With this being said a husband and wife must decide together with the Lord when it appropriate to have children and how many to have, The world will influence us to put off having children until we are highly successful or perhaps to have just one because we might overpopulate the Earth, but we need to remember it is no one's choice, but the one we make with our spouse and the Lord.