Case Study Report – W09 #4

Name: Beatriz García de Ackerman

Instructor name: Brother Roe

Class: FDREL 200, Section: 44

Response Option: C

Case Study

Amanda was heartbroken. Over the past two years, she had noticed her younger sister Sarah’s

increasing reluctance to attend church functions. She knew that Sarah and her husband Greg,

who had been married for 5 years, had not been able to conceive. Sarah told her that she felt

alone, abandoned by God, and judged by everyone at church for not having a baby yet. Every

time she attended church someone would hint that it was time for them to start having children.

No one knew that Sarah and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for several years. Sarah

felt as if she was on display for her childlessness. Lessons at church focused on families were

difficult for Sarah to hear because they had no children. She was also coming to terms with the

fact that “maybe God doesn’t trust me with a baby.” Amanda wanted to comfort her sister, but

she just wasn’t sure what to say.

Questions- My Response:

1. Referring to course materials, what might Amanda tell her sister about God’s love

for her and her husband, and His plan for His children?

Having children is a sensitive issue that can be very painful for straight couples who get married

and discover that they cannot have the children they expected with such longing, or for a husband
and wife who plan to have a large family, but they are blessed with a smaller family. In my

family there are two cases, a loving daughter, obedient, dedicated to the Gospel and her ex-

missionary husband, leader of a stake and cannot have children, they have been married for 6

years and cannot have children, and another strong daughter in the Gospel, which has 3 children

and cannot have more children, she wanted a large family and could not have it either.

So, this case touches me very closely, the advice I would give to Sarah is the same that I give to

my daughters, there is a great need for strong women in the Gospel with loving arms to protect

the children around them. if they open their arms they will find them full of these children.

God loves us all equally, and for each one he has a designed plan, a perfect design that we cannot

visualize, only He who is the creator of this design can see the final image, and as a weaver of a

tapestry he puts golden threads, silver, and dark where they have to go so that the design is

unique, beautiful and responds to its creator

That, although an essential part of the Happiness Plan is to bring children into the world, it is not

the only part of the Plan, but the Lord expects us to be tested to see if we will do all the things

that He will send us, (Abraham 3:25). The tests are different for everyone and come in all shapes

and sizes, if we are faithful and persevere despite our trials we will reach eternal life and we will

receive ALL the promises among them that of eternal progeny, and we will see that what we had

on Earth had a purpose, which was to reach the measure of our creation, which is the potential to

become as God is.

Elder Neil Andersen said: We cannot always explain the difficulties of our mortality; Sometimes

life seems to be very unfair, especially when our greatest desire is to do exactly what the Lord has

commanded. As a servant of the Lord, I assure you that this promise is true: "Faithful members

whose circumstances prevent them from receiving the blessings of eternal marriage and
fatherhood in this life will receive all the blessings promised in the eternities, as long as they keep

the covenants that they have made with God "(October 2011, General Conference)

2. How might Amanda counsel Sarah to interact with other’s who inquire about her

“having a baby”?

When they ask my daughter about this, she feels bad, very bad, and for several days that

discomfort lasts, people and especially the members of the church are invasive and unwise about

that issue. The sisters who go through this situation want to be swallowed by the earth when they

ask these questions, and not to ask more about the same subject. Marriages suffer because they do

not have children, especially in the Church. When you ask these kinds of questions you can

calmly answer that your greatest desire is to bring children into the world but only Heavenly

Father knows when the time will be right, that you are doing everything on your part to make this

happen, and meanwhile you dedicate your love and time to help mothers who are overloaded

with several children, relieving their burden, and that will be when it has to be, that maybe for

them to have a child can be like Abraham and Sarah a true miracle, and wait patiently in the Lord

for it to happen in their lives. And that a son is not the only thing they can offer the Lord, and

when people manifest their sadness because they have no children, they could say something like

this: "Do not feel bad for us, if in this life we are not called to be parents, we are sure that it will

not always be like that, someday there will be children running through our heavenly home. And

we will love them even more for having waited for them so long. "
 3. How might Sarah come to terms with living in a “family” oriented church, when she

has not been blessed with children and does not feel she has a “family”?

Sarah and her husband could say that they are at the service of the Lord and his Gospel and feel

that He supports and blesses them in a loving way, recalling the Lord's tender mercies, as they

say in the scriptures. Remember the saying that when the Lord closes a door, he opens a window.

The opportunities for service in the Church are wonderful. That the children of the Lord can be

brought up through the appeals received in the Church. That their proof of not having children

causes them a great pain of heart, but this gives them a greater understanding of the pain of

others.

That the Church speaks of families, but we are all part of a great family, the family of the

Heavenly Father, we are all brothers and we have a family model that is a father and a heavenly

mother, who love us and wish to see us progress up to reconnect with us In this big family we

are children, brothers, parents, there are different roles but it is a family, otherwise it would not

be a family.