Coincidence? I think not.

So I had just posted my theory on ‘why Sarai laughed’ and ended up surfing the web for other infertility blogs. Which, by the way, all happen to be on Google blogs. Because of which I now have one here :) Anyhow, I ended up coming across the following article How to Make Sara Laugh.

An excerpt, "The biblical matriarch Sarah is perhaps history's most famous infertile woman. As a member of a tribe that valued family above almost anything else, she must have tried every ancient remedy...When Abraham brought Sarah a message from God, saying they would have a son even though she was past childbearing age, the old woman laughed...One in eight couples has trouble conceiving; it stands to reason that, for some percentage of these couples, intense religious belief informs the way they approach this problem...one thing appears to be true: a religious or spiritual mind-set may help infertile women. In a study of nearly 200 women published in 2005, psychologist Alice Domar and her colleagues found a high correlation between women who said they were religious and those with low rates of anxiety and depression during fertility treatment. Here, then, is the million-dollar question: does being religious actually help infertile women get pregnant? Domar says it's possible. If religious women have less depression and anxiety, and lower rates of depression and anxiety correlate to higher pregnancy rates, "it stands to reason that religious and spiritual women should have higher pregnancy rates." No wonder Sarah laughed."

I actually have a hard time with this article. I feel like it promotes the "just relax" mentality of the fertile world with a religious twist. Has no one ever thought of the fact that maybe whether you conceive and give birth to a child is outside of our hands completely? Yes we have doctors that can help set up all the elements and conditions that help conception occur but whether a life is created is beyond our control. It has nothing to do with our emotions but everything to do with what God has ordained. And just because I understand this does not mean I do not cry every time another month goes by and morn the lost opportunity of not conceiving a child. Sarai laughed because God told her that she would have a child well beyond her fertile years yet God ordained the life of Isaac and it was God who had the last laugh.