Gainesville Couple Teaches NFP

Dustin and Erin Atkinson of Gainesville, Virginia are a professionally trained Couple to Couple League teaching couple for Natural Family Planning.  The Atkinsons have been practicing and teaching Natural Family Planning for six years and the most amazing thing that the Atkinsons have found using Natural Family Planning is that it makes you more open to life.  “Most couples take up NFP (Natural Family Planning) as a natural way to restrict their family size,” says Dustin.  “But because you are open to life, couples find the blessings and joys that a child brings.”

Natural Family Planning teaches couples to look at the natural design of their bodies through the use of “Sympto-Thermal Methods” to find an individual woman’s period of fertility and by using “Ecological Breastfeeding,” which is the natural use of breastfeeding babies on demand to both nurture the child and naturally space children.  Both husband and wife discuss and chart their observations, taking into account any nuances, which the NFP book describes in detail.   Natural Family Planning requires that couples communicate and pray, often looking to God who is the ultimate creator of life.  The teaching of contraception tells society to look at children in a negative way; since a woman’s natural fertility is ignored.  Contraception discourages communication with your partner or spouse and most often God’s plan for us is ignored.

John and Sheila Kippley founded the Couple to Couple League in 1971 in response to Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” which reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching against contraception.  The Couple to Couple League was a way to bring organized information to couples regardless of their nationality or faith. The theology for Natural Family Planning is based upon the Bible and couples from different denominations and religions have taken the classes.  Some couples are interested in NFP because of the health aspects, and not specifically because of the moral issues. 

The new edition of Natural Family Planning has just been released and is in an easier to understand format.  It also includes information about John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”  John Paul states that sex is "the sacred space of God" since God continues creation through the gift of new life and He creates the soul from nothing, while a couple provides for the physical creation of life.  Pope Benedict XVI summarizes his book through his encyclical by saying:  “GOD is Love.” The encyclical is divided into two parts. “A theological-philosophical reflection on ‘love’ in its various dimensions, highlighting God’s  love for man and the inherent links that such love has with human love.  The second part concerns the concrete implementation of the commandment to love others.”[1]

The Atkinsons teach two classes per year and each Natural Family Planning class is taught over a period of three months.  The next sessions will be held on the following dates at Holy Trinity Catholic Church:  March 7, March 28, May 2, and June 6.  They can be reached via email at:  e_m_atkinson@hotmail.com to register for classes.  Other class times and locations can be found at: www.nova.ccli.org   For more information on the Couple to Couple League, visit:  www.ccli.org

Date Published: 2008-02-20 04:00:00

Section: Local News,