Taking risks

We had a little swap table at Enrichment the other day, you know, the kind of thing where you clean out your house and get rid of the crap that has been cluttering your own life, just so you can pick up somebody else's crap and bring it home and fill the space you just cleaned out. (Sadly, this time I didn't even clean out my own crap, I just gleefully brought home somebody else's crap without pausing long enough to consider that if somebody else is throwing it away, I probably don't need it either. Oh well.) Anyway.... One woman brought mounds and mounds of baby clothes of every size you can imagine. She's just had her 6th child, and she is done, so out with the baby crap for good! Another woman remarked, as this liberated mother deposited literally 5 loads from her car of undifferentiated baby paraphanalia onto the tables, "My, it must feel good to know you are done." The mother looked at her and said, "Oh yeah. I'm done." The first woman (who is 40 and has 4 kids, by the way), said, wistfully, "Oh, it's just still such a debate between me and my husband about whether or not we'll have another one, and I feel like the Lord is just saying, 'Hey, make up your mind!' You know what I mean, Heather?" Well, actually, no, I don't, but this is Relief Society, after all, charity never faileth and all that, and since she was clearly in a mood to wax lyrical about motherhood rather than actually seeking my opinion about such things, which she certainly really, REALLY would not appreciate anyway, I just smiled and shrugged. She continued, "Oh, and you know, I'm almost 41, and my doctor tells me there are such risks involved with having a baby over the age of 40. But, you and I both know that when we know the Plan of Salvation, it makes it so there are no risks, not really." I stared at her. What? "What will come, will come, whatever is meant to be. And actually, statistically, it's the women who are having babies at 23 that are having the problems." I actually have little idea what statistics are involved with problematic pregnancies at age 41, or how in any way they relate to women at age 23, but it was really the previous statement that blew my mind. Knowing the Plan of Salvation eliminates risk? Is that true? Or did she mean that being able to put figures on a flannel board about where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going makes it so we don't have to be scared of what might be coming? Don't get me wrong. I love knowing the Plan of Salvation, and I'll admit that it probably adds a persective to a difficult life that others may not have, and having the gift of the Comforter certainly is a part of that, too. But deliberately taking a risk, just because you know about the plan seems foolish to me, if not in direct contradiction of God's commandments about being good stewards to our bodies and our families. If this woman had said, "I feel like there is another spirit that belongs in our family, even though I'm forty", or even, "I know I'm getting older, but I still really want another child," I would be fine with it. But ignoring risks just because, "what will come will come", well, I'm not so okay with that. We didn't continue our conversation, because the Relief Society president announced that it was time for refreshments, so we broke off rifling through the stuff and headed for the kitchen. If there's anything we Mormons like better than other people's crap, it's fattening food somebody else has had to prepare. (Enter Homer Simpsonesque voice here:)Mmmmm...doouuughnuts....arrrgglrrg...{tongue lolling out, drool, drool, drool...}