My 16 year old son David is wearing a blood red arm band to school today that says choose life, which he sewed in front of the TV last night. He is not making casual conversation today but rather handing out this little card to all those who ask why he isn't talking today. I was so proud and encouraged to think that my son would have the guts to speak up for the missing generations of people in this world right now due to abortion. We worry about our Social Security payments in future years but the truth is we aborted many of those future workers that would have supported those needed Social Security benefits for the Boomer generation. When I asked David what he was doing he explained it all to me. Then he asked me what I thought about the pro life movement. I had to tell him this story----It was more than 16 years ago that I worked as a volunteer counselor at a crisis pregnancy center in southern Vermont. Living just over the border in New Hampshire, it was a bit of a drive from Walpole down to the center, but I didn't care. My concern at the time was to give a little back to society by trying to reach out to women who needed help. Some of them may decide to give their unborn children a chance for life if my counsel spoke to their hearts. Some were the walking dead inside who had abortion in their past and were struggling to find value and worth ... and most of all.... forgiveness. God laid it on my heart to work with those women since no one helped me so many years ago as a young woman going thru a divorce. My soon to be ex convinced me it was the only way to "save the marriage" and my parents could offer me no place to live if I had the baby. All the counselors in the world at that time were not there to hold my hand when the abortion took place... or to rebuke the doctor who performed it when he got upset because I cried during the process. All the talk in the world could not erase the guilt I felt.
I struggled for years with the guilt and tried to mask or ignore it with alcohol, cigarettes and wrong relationships. Eventually I met a wonderful man, David's dad George, and we married. That was over 34 years ago and since that time I have come to know that Jesus died to pay for my sins and that I could be clean again and healed deep in my soul. And so it was I eventually found myself counseling at a crisis center. I wanted to save unborn babies and also reach out to those mothers, whether they made the right choice or not, and tell them how much God loved them.
I quit the center when I discovered I was expecting a child in my 40's that would be born in June. I was fearful as my pregnancies had not always been easy, so I decided to not travel south to the center but rather rest and prepare for the upcoming birth. That child's name was David Clay-- David means a man after God's own heart and Clay because I wanted him to always be moldable to God's will for his life. So when David asked me what I thought about pro life I had to be honest and tell him my story but I could also tell him to be sensitive because he may hand out a flier to a girl that desperately needs to know God loves her....
Generations will go before us and God promises that if they honor Him , they will rise above their forefathers. That gives me great joy and life....
