Benjamin and Lauren Turner
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The First Commandments

2/12/2012

 
When I was first having serious conversations with Ben (is it really only a little over a year ago??!), he said something that had me puzzling for a while.  "I believe in the first commandment," he said.  Common enough statement, except that we had been discussing what we thought of having children.  It seemed to me an obvious statement that he believed there was no other God besides the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but I wasn't quite sure what that had to do with children.  But Ben was pulling a very mild joke on me, one that I fell for.  He was still discussing children.

Because the first commandment is actually in Genesis: "Be fruitful," God said to his creation.  And the second commandment is, "...and multiply."

Ben said, "You know, those are two different commandments.  Being fruitful doesn't just mean having children.  It means that you're like a tree and your life has to bear good fruit.  But while your life bears good fruit, you are also supposed to multiply."

In other words, he felt that it was very important for those who believed in God to exhibit the fruits the Spirit as well as to raise up Godly children.  There was more to being fruitful than simply producing children: they were ONE of the fruits of a person's life, not the only one.

But we did regard having children as a very, very important fruit of a Godly marriage.  Having and raising children have been subjects of discussion for us since the very beginning of our friendship.  When Ben asked me to marry him, he said, "I want to have a house with you.  I want to have lots of babies with you.  I want to grow old with you.  But to do these things, we have to get married."

About a week before our wedding, Ben asked me, "How soon realistically do you think we'd actually have a child?"

"I don't have any idea," I said.  "I have friends who were open to having children right away who didn't for a few years; and others who had children right away.  It usually takes a little while.  Honeymoon babies are kind of rare, for instance."

Almost exactly a month later, based on all kinds of new things I had certainly never experienced before, I came to Ben and said, "Now, I know I SAID honeymoon babies are rare..."

Two months and some change later, as I'm continuing to exhibit proof of this suspicion, we're preparing to put our long discussions into practice.

For those of you who've been waiting for me to make a slip in my blogging for the past two months, this is not a slip!

If anyone missed it, we're delighted to be expecting our first child to make his or her formal appearance sometime around the middle of September.  

At about nine weeks old, he or she already is nearly a completely formed little person, with arms and legs and fingers and toes and ears and eyes and a face and a heartbeat we could already hear from the outside if we had the right machine.  This is a miracle we're still having a little bit of hard time believing could be happening so quickly - after all, we're just now coming up on our three-month anniversary - but one thing's for certain: we're full of joy and wonder to have been given the opportunity to fulfill God's first commandments so quickly!
Emily
2/12/2012 01:57:21 pm

So....

The first time I asked Barry about introducing you and Ben together, he looked at me and tilted his head and said...."really? you think so?"

he kind of seemed doubtful.

I figured he was probably right.."way different backgrounds" and all.

But then as you know, a year or so went by and the thoughts of introducing you were still coming to me.... and the thoughts got louder and before you know it I was calling you telling you how stupid I felt.. ha ha..

Well, before I called you (the night before I think.. I had already told Ben about you) I asked Barry again what he thought of me introducing you. (keep in mind that this is about a year later)

He tilted his head to the side and said..."hmmm... maybe"
I responded with.."Well, what if we just put two email addresses in a room together and see what happens?"
He responded with.."Then those two email addresses might end up getting married and having little baby email addresses.."

So we introduced the email addresses and look what happened..

It makes me smile so much.

Congratulations to the two of you. I am very much looking forward to meeting baby Turner. What a blessing.

Emily
2/12/2012 02:11:05 pm

And really, thats just sort of an irreverent way of telling you that your marriage (and obeying the first two commandments...) is a huge blessing to me.

I stand amazed. Still.

Elizabeth
2/13/2012 05:45:03 am

YAYYYYY!!

:D :D

This is me, happy that there is a FORMAL announcement and I don't have to watch who I say what to. :D :D

In case you were in ANY doubt, I'm so excited to be Aunt Elizabeth, and I can't wait to see him or her!!!!

And Emily, I am still amazed too!!! I'm so glad you DID call Lauren and tell her how stupid you felt...:D When Lauren told me what you said I thought 'I know exactly what she means....I'd feel stupid too!' But some things are worth feeling stupid about and doing anyway.

Lauren
2/14/2012 12:31:28 am

Yup, two email addresses in a room apparently get married and have baby email addresses *chuckle*.

Thank you so much for the congratulations!

I stand amazed also. It is hard to believe that you can wait for something for so long and see no signs of it ever coming about; and then it just does. Almost like, "Oh, of course it was going to be this easy!"

Aunt Lizzy? Aunt Little Bits? Aunt Betsy?

Nope. Aunt Elizabeth it most likely is. :P

The only person I really haven't called is Sandy - have you talked to her already or do you think there's still a chance for me to call?

And by the way, I discovered yesterday that while I was calculating the number of weeks of this pregnancy by a method that made perfect sense, the formal method apparently adds two weeks in which a person is not pregnant at all, just for the sake of confusion. So we are at ELEVEN weeks, not nine.

Not every day you get to just shove the calender forward a few weeks, though. And it does make the size of the bump I'm showing much more understandable since it means this baby is about twice the size I thought he/she was. It also makes the sudden abatement of queasiness much more reasonable, since that usually does tend to subside around ten weeks.

I feel much better having found my mistake!

Jill
2/14/2012 02:09:29 am

Once again, Lauren, I say "congratulations" and I (we) could not be happier for the two of you.
Two beautiful young people starting a beautiful new life together and readying themselves for a beautiful "new" miracle to love and share with their family.
I love you two.
~J~

Kim
2/16/2012 06:23:11 pm

I am so happy for you guys! I now know from experience what a blessing children are. Your lives are about to change forever, but in the best way possible. Congrats!

Julie
2/17/2012 05:43:53 pm

Congrats to Ben and Lauren!!! Enjoy your pregnancy!


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    Author: Lauren

    Wife of Benjamin and mother to two wonderful little girls who are getting bigger every day.  Enjoys writing down thoughts and discussions we are having within the family and sharing them with whoever is interested in reading.

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