I read a sort of blog post just now from my friend Susan who was counseling a 20 year old girl considering an abortion. I will give you some context and then share my thoughts. Forgive me if you think it overly dramatic. I’m kind of dramatic.
Quoting the young woman, Susan said, “She is very anxious and scared because a pregnancy would complicate her life.”
Amen, Amen!!! Is “complicate” not the understatement of the century?! As christians, can we just be stinking honest with people and tell them straight up, Heck Yes! This child is going to mess you up! Your life will never be the same. He or she is going to emphasize every single weakness that you have and you are going to feel it every day for the rest of your life! For the first time, you will reach a hand up in the air, and then you will bring it down until it clutches a fist full of your own firmly attached hair. Then you will try to yank it out as if somehow that act will inspire civility within the young one in front of you. And it wont. You will ponder often, sometimes for hours, how it is possible for a human so small to be so brilliant and stupid at the same time. And you will come up with nothing close to an answer! And now you’re the one feeling stupid.
And it’s going to be the biggest blessing that you have ever had.
You will never understand the love of Christ more than you will as a parent raising and caring for a human life. At birth, your mind will be blown because you wont even be able contain the complexities of why you love this one that you have never even met. So. Incredibly. Much. You will try, but you won’t get it because it’s God. We don’t get God. You will learn about real love—not the Hollywood love—real love, the kind that lasts forever. And you will read silly books, that really are silly, but you won’t care because you care so much for your kid. And you will cling to Jesus! Because, after you are done reading the silly books, and have done everything that they said, you realize that your kids are still bad. But they’re so sweet. It’s sin! And Jesus paid for that (penal substitutionary atonement) and so you will understand more about the grace of God, causing you to cling to Jesus everyday—even more. It’s awesome. And it’s weird. It’s amazing! And it’s totally a mystery. Most certainly, the choice to raise a child has never been regretted by any sane person.
Let’s just be honest with our friends that have questions: Parenting is hell but the rewards are heaven. Anybody care to concur …or not?
I concur….
This subject is one that is hard for me, having a friend who had an abortion. When she told me that she was pregnant, and was going to get an abortion, my husband and I offered to adopt the baby instead. She was appalled that I would suggest that she could “give up her baby.” I tried to explain that this is what she was doing anyways by getting an abortion. She was in college, and wanted to finish. She didn’t want to be tied to that boyfriend anymore… her excuses were endless.
I think that we as a culture have gotten wrapped up in the idea that our life is our own. We work so hard on ourselves, and what is best for us, that our vision becomes clouded, and we don’t realize that our very existence is for others, especially the little ones.
Kristin, so well said. Our culture sees education and success as more important than protecting the lives of others. Sadness for sure. Francis Chan says, “people care more about their standard of living than other people living.” And that is the truth, especially in this.
wow. i agree… so well said.
This is a hard one for me too. I had an abortion at 17 and even though it was over 30 years ago, I still think about my son or daughter that would be 35 years old now. I really didn’t have a clue at the time what I was doing. I wish there were people passing out pamphlets or carrying picket signs at that time, but there weren’t. There was no opposition that I was aware of. A couple of years later I did become aware what I had actually done and the horror of it. I’m thankful for the forgiveness of God and the freedom from guilt I initially struggled with when I came to that realization; I had, through abortion, murdered my unborn child. That kind of guilt is capable of destroying a person if they don’t find the mercy and redemption through Christ and the Cross. I can see why so people don’t want to acknowledge the facts of what abortion really is, because if really did, they would have to live with the guilt of letting the slaughter continue.
Thanks for your comments Wendy… and mom (Lynda).