KEYWORDS: baby, god, work, care, children

God's Gift Is God's Work--Part 2

David Berg

August 5, 1978MO—DFO 745

—By Father David

© April 1979 by World Services, Postfach 241, 8021 Zurich, Switzerland

1. IF SHE GETS PREGNANT, TRY TO HELP HER BE VERY CAREFUL at those times, and you be prayerful and don't cause her to overdo. And particularly girls, if you want to keep that baby, don't get on top during your potential period. That's why it's important to keep the record even of what would have been your period each month.

2. (MARIA: THAT ILLUSTRATES AN IMPORTANT POINT BECAUSE YOU MIGHT HAVE A FEW MATES AND LOVERS. I have two men keeping track of my period every month. But that's a real good illustration.

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4. THAT'S WHY I THINK IN EVERY HOME THERE OUGHT TO BE SOMEBODY RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING TRACK OF THE PERIODS, especially if the girls themselves are careless. There ought to be a girl-care or pregnancy-care or mother-care person that's concerned & in every Home ought to keep track.

5. NORMAL INTERCOURSE DURING MOST OF YOUR PREGNANCY IS USUALLY FINE provided there has been or are no unusual circumstances like bleeding, a weak cervix, a history of miscarriages, etc., in which case you must be especially careful. But even if everything is normal, there must be consideration too, for the fact that in early pregnancy the woman will undoubtedly be extremely tired‚ so her husband should try not to be too demanding, & in later pregnancy uncomfortable with the man-on-top, woman-on–bottom position, so that other positions should be adopted. Her breasts may be very tender either throughout her whole pregnancy or probably at least some part of it.

6. BUT REMEMBER, GIRLS, YOUR HUSBAND CAN'T GO ENTIRELY WITHOUT SEX FOR YOUR WHOLE PREGNANCY, so you should talk it over together & try to each accommodate the other as much as possible & consider each other's needs & what you can do to try to make the other happy & satisfied.

7. (MARIA: THE PROHIBITIONS ON DEEP PENETRATION SHOULD INCLUDE THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS TOO.) Oh, definitely! (Maria: Which, as you say, lack of consideration & concern has probably caused some discomfort & perhaps early babies.

8. YOU GIRLS CAN GET YOUR HAND DOWN THERE & GRAB HIS PENIS NO MATTER WHAT HE'S DOING, SO HE CAN'T GO IN TOO FAR. You can close your legs. Of course if there is any question or problem, you men need to be extra careful in those late months, & you can either use other women or other methods rather than take chances.

9. WELL ANYHOW, GOD MADE IT EXACTLY 280 DAYS. We were talking about the marvellous order of nature, God's creation, it's perfection.

10. HOW ANYBODY COULD SAY IT ALL HAPPENED BY ACCIDENT, THEY'RE FOOLS! It's ridiculous. All you have to do is sit out on the terrace or sit out in the yard & look at the trees & the birds & watch the squirrels & you'll know that it wasn't an accident, too much planning went into all that. But we still have to take care of it, to tend it & to keep it.

11. SO YOU TEND & KEEP YOUR WIFE. She's your little garden, the Bible says, & it's your business to tend & to keep her, your mate or whatever you want to call her. I prefer to have a love affair. One way to keep an eternal love affair is never get married, then you're just always lovers!

12. SO-CALLED MISCARRIAGE IS COMMON UP UNTIL THE 3RD MONTH of pregnancy, so it's a little ridiculous to count too much on the baby during those first 3 months. It's very common to lose it during the first 3 months.

13. IT'S NOT AT ALL UNUSUAL IF THE MOTHER IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH or not eating properly or there's something wrong in any way. This is God's way of delivering you from pregnancy which otherwise might not work out right, or a baby which she may not be strong enough to bear.

14. IF THE MOTHER IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH THEN GOD DELIVERS HER BEFOREHAND. The Bible talks about a birth in which the child has come to the birth but the mother is not strong enough to bear it, & many women used to die in childbirth for this reason. They were not strong enough to bring the child forth, to put forth the strength & the effort.

15. MARIA DOESN'T LOOK VERY STRONG, & she's not. She's always been a little bit weak. Even Madam M said something about it I think, a little frail.

16. BUT SHE HAS TAKEN GOOD CARE OF THE HEALTH SHE HAS. She eats right, tries to sleep right, takes good care of herself & the baby, & gets some exercise at least.

17. I MUST SAY WE USED TO GET MORE EXERCISE WHEN WE HAD DAVIDITO. We danced every night which is a help, & we always walked long walks to town & back & even rode the bumpy gua-guas (Tenerife buses)‚ & I think that was all good for her.

18. EVEN IN HER 9TH MONTH WE TOOK A RIDE ON THAT OROTAVA GUA-GUA! I mean if any woman can stand one of those bumpy buses‚ she can stand anything (M: I practiced my breathing exercises on the bus.) She figured, if I have the baby now! ... So it's very important that she gets good exercise too.

19. NOW YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TREAT A PREGNANT GIRL LIKE SHE'S SOME KIND OF AN INVALID or like she's not able to do anything, or she's got to stay in bed all the time. Some girls use that as an excuse to loaf just 'cause they're lazy.

20. IT USED TO BE THE FASHION WHEN I WAS A KID, WHEN A WOMAN GOT PREGNANT THEY PUT HER TO BED. That's the worst thing they could have done for her, because that just weakens her. No wonder they had so many mothers die in childbirth, they weren't able to bring them forth. They didn't have the strength. They pampered themselves too much.

21. A GIRL SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO MOST OF HER NORMAL HOUSEWORK, chores & all of that.—Except she might have to take a little bit better care of herself, she might need to get a little more rest (possibly quite a bit more during the first 3 months)‚ eat a little more carefully & watch she doesn't overdo.

22. YOU JUST HAVE TO BE A LITTLE MORE CAUTIOUS, a little more careful & prayerful. But you don't have to be an invalid, & you don't have to put her to bed, boys.

23. UNLESS IT'S ONE OF THE FEW RARE CASES WHERE SOMETHING GOES WRONG‚ maybe she starts bleeding & the doctor says she better stay in bed a few days till it stops.

24. (M: IN THE FIRST MONTH OF SOME WOMEN'S PREGNANCIES, A LITTLE BLEEDING IS QUITE COMMON. So they need to just take it a bit easier during this time. But it's sort of ridiculous to go to bed for days on end. A definite danger signal, however, at any time during pregnancy is bleeding with pain. Seek medical advice immediately.)

25. MARIA WAS A MONTH PREGNANT WITH DAVIDITO, & at the time when she was supposed to have her next period, the first period that she missed, she even started bleeding a little bit. But then it stopped & she didn't have her period. And she did a little bit the same way this time.

26. SO JUST BECAUSE YOU BLEED A LITTLE BIT DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN YOU'RE HAVING A MISCARRIAGE or going to have one. But it's a time to take good care of yourself & not overdo, get plenty of rest‚ don't strain yourself, especially if you have a history of miscarriages.

27. MOM & I LOST A BABY IN THE 5TH MONTH AFTER SHE'D GONE OUT CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ALL DAY LONG on her feet. Then she came home & lifted a heavy couch & moved it around getting ready for Christmas‚ & Christmas killed the baby, it was a little girl. Christmas killed the baby, literally!

28. I'LL NEVER FORGET, SHE HAD IT SO QUICK! She woke up in the middle of the night, had a few pains & boom!—There it was! I had to pick up the whole works, baby & all wrapped up in the bedding & stick it in the car & rush to the hospital. She lost quite a bit of blood, it was pretty risky.

29. IT WAS ALL FROM OVERDOING. She got too tired, was on her feet too long, & came home & strained herself by lifting a heavy couch, & the baby came too soon. Don't be afraid to ask for help in lifting things or tiring tasks, if it's not volunteered.

30. ANOTHER TIME WE LOST ONE IN THE 6TH MONTH. The baby was stillborn, born dead. I came home from a trip & I was pretty sex-starved & I fucked her a lot, & I always felt bad, since I didn't know whether it was my fault or not, thinking I had perhaps fucked her too much or too deep.

31. I SORT OF FELT GUILTY & TOOK THE BLAME AT THE TIME, but since then, now that I know how wayward & rebellious she was becoming, maybe it was her fault.

32. MAYBE GOD TOOK IT AWAY AS A JUDGMENT AGAINST HER‚ because of her disobedient & rebellious spirit that she was already beginning to manifest against me & the Lord & the will of God. I also learned much later that injury to the uterus or its contents resulting solely from intercourse in pregnancy is extremely rare.

33. ANYWAY, WE HAD FOUR AND THAT SEEMED TO BE ENOUGH. They were enough to make a Revolution and start the Family‚ PTL!

34. THE BABY IS FULLY AND PERFECTLY FORMED AT EXACTLY 140 DAYS or five lunar months, 4 1/2 calendar months. But forget about working with the calendar, that's pretty inaccurate. A baby is born according to the calendar the Western world uses at about nine months, but exactly 10 Moons!

35. BUT IF YOU WANT TO GET ACCURATE YOU'VE GOT TO COUNT THE DAYS OR THE WEEKS.—Exactly 280 days or exactly 40 weeks of 7 days each. So if your girl missed her period, how are you going to find out whether it's going to be an Aquarian or a Pisces or an Aries or what? What's the easiest thing to do?

36. WELL LIKE WITH MARIA, HER LAST PERIOD WAS ON THE 10TH OF JUNE which was a Saturday, so I just started counting every Saturday from then on till I got to the 40th week‚ 40th Saturday. And there it was, a Pisces baby, right in the middle of March! That ought to make all you Pisces happy!

37. DID YOU EVER NOTICE HOW MANY PISCES SECRETARIES WE HAVE THAT ARE CHILDLESS? Because how many secretaries can afford to have children? Secretaries are usually too busy to have children‚ so nearly all of our Pisces secretaries are childless! PTL!

38. WE HAVE OODLES OF PISCES WHO ARE SECRETARIES AND MOST OF THEM ARE CHILDLESS! Because they've got enough to do already. They've got a full-time job just in secretarial work, they don't have time to take care of babies.

39. DON'T TELL ME GOD DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING! Pisces apparently make good secretaries and therefore they don't have much time to be mothers. I don't say all Pisces secretaries are childless, but almost all the ones we know.

40. THANK GOD FOR THE GIRLS WHO DON'T HAVE CHILDREN SO THEY CAN HELP TAKE CARE OF MINE, OR YOURS! If everybody has so many children there won't be anybody left to help the mothers take care of theirs. So God knows what He's doing. I believe in trusting the Lord. I'm convinced that He knows what He's doing.

41. IF GOD GIVES A GIRL A BABY, THEN HE MUST KNOW THAT SHE CAN BE A MOTHER and a good mother. If she's not a good mother He wants her to learn to be a good mother. Even if she doesn't like children, she needs to learn to love them. Right?

42. AND IF THE FATHERS, LIKE SO MANY FATHERS, ARE SELFISH and they don't want children‚ pure selfishness, they need to learn to want children and learn to love children. They need to learn to take care of a pregnant mother and learn to help her with the children. I mean it's not all fun getting up in the middle of the night and changing the baby and fixing its bottle and all the rest of that and losing sleep.

43. THAT'S WHAT MAKES A MOTHER WONDERFUL, THAT SELF-SACRIFICIAL SPIRIT that is willing to sacrifice her own time, her strength‚ even her health for the sake of that child. That's what makes a father wonderful, that willingness to sacrifice himself and his strength and his time to help take care of the mother and the child, amen?

44. OUR FATHERS HAVE NO EXCUSES. They're living together in a Home—of course most of them have some job, but we all have jobs of some kind.

45. WE ALL HAVE WORK TO DO, BUT YOU'RE USUALLY RIGHT THERE TOGETHER unless you're out litnessing, witnessing or FFing or something. You should be able to take good care of that girl and that child and help at least take care of it, or of her.

46. SO THERE'S JUST NO EXCUSE FOR THESE GIRLS WHO WANT ABORTIONS to get rid of the baby because they don't want to have to take care of it, or because their husband or mate or boyfriend doesn't want it. To hell with him if he doesn't want it! Something's wrong with him if he doesn't want it, if he doesn't want the gift of God!

47. YOU KNOW THE BABY'S A LITTLE BIT LIKE SALVATION.—IT'S A GIFT, but if you have it, it causes a lot of hard work, right? "Faith without works is dead." (Ja.2:17.) And a baby without hard work is going to be dead too!

48. A BABY IS A GIFT, BUT IT'S A LOT OF HARD WORK. Salvation is a gift‚ but your saved life is a lot of hard work. Children are gifts, but your life as a father and mother taking care of them is a lot of hard work, but it's worth it. Praise God?

49. ARE YOU SORRY I HAD FOUR CHILDREN? I'M NOT EITHER, BUT EVERY ONE WE HAD MY WIFE WAS SORRY! She thought her ministry was ruined forever, especially when she had four, with two of them in diapers! Ah‚ that was the end of her public ministry. She'd been a woman preacher, youth leader, youth director, secretary very very busy in church work and all that, and then later my accompanist and pianist and wife.

50. SHE WAS BUSY BUSY IN EVANGELISTIC WORK, WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN ALONG CAME THESE FOUR BABIES! She was busy busy all right, but she didn't have much time for what she considered the Lord's work. To her the Lord's work was preaching, teaching, playing the piano in meetings, church work etc.

51. SHE NEVER DREAMED HOW MUCH THOSE FOUR CHILDREN WERE THE LORD'S WORK! And a lot of hard work, years of hard work before she saw the results‚ before she saw any real good fruit out of it.

52. I'D SAY FAITHIE, THE YOUNGEST‚ WAS AT LEAST TWO YEARS OLD BEFORE WE BEGAN TO SEE THE FRUITS. Aaron was about eight, Faithie was two and the rest in between, when they began singing and playing and quoting Scriptures and standing on the street corner singing, witnessing, winning souls, and starting the Family.

53. SHE NEVER DREAMED WHAT A GREAT WORK SHE WAS DOING IN JUST CHANGING DIAPERS AND FIXING FORMULA and feeding babies and taking care of a bunch of little rascals that raised the roof!—And they were the noisiest loudest bunch of little kids you ever saw and as full of life as anything you ever saw, and absolutely in perpetual motion! They never stopped until they were asleep.—Enough to almost run anybody crazy! She almost went crazy!

54. SHE SAID, "MY GOD, WHY DID HE GIVE ME ALL THESE CHILDREN? I CAN'T DO A THING FOR THE LORD NOW! All I have to do is take care of kids, a bunch of little kids, screaming babies! How can I do the Lord's work?" My Lord, she was doing God's work and didn't know it!

55. THEY WERE TO BECOME THE GREATEST WORK SHE EVER DID, because they were to become God's work, His greatest work that He was going to do. Without them there would have never been a revolution, there would have never been a Family. They're the ones that started it. They're the ones that proved it could be done.

56. IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THOSE FOUR CHILDREN WE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN INTERESTED IN YOUNG PEOPLE. But we had four young ones of our own, and that made us interested and it made them interested. They were concerned about other young people and their salvation and their lives, and that's what started the Family.

57. YOU KNOW WHAT STARTED THE FAMILY? MOM GETTING MORNING SICKNESS almost every morning before we learned about crackers! Throwing up quite often, sad to say, because we were so stupid we didn't know better. We only made that mistake on the first one I think. Then we got Dr. Bundeson's baby book, out of print now, and we read what to do, and thank God for that!