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?