As many of you know, the reason I am so passionate about this ministry is because I found myself in a crisis pregnancy as a teen. I was very scared and didn’t tell my parents what I was going through. When I left the health department I cried and cried. I was so scared and couldn’t believe this was happening. I told the young man I was engaged to, and he told his sister. His sister had 5 abortions and insisted I have an abortion right away before I got “attached”.
I can’t blame her. After all, it was ultimately my decision and my decision alone. I want to repeat that …….ALONE! I was a teenager and the decision that only a merciful God should have, was placed upon me. I alone had to make the choice of Life and Death for another person. I didn’t understand the biology or the ramifications, physically, mentally, or spiritually.
I recently had to make end of life choices for my mother. All the emotions from the past came up and I didn’t want to be required by the doctors to make those decisions. So ultimately, I decided to leave it in God’s hands. There was a relief in that decision. I didn’t have to carry the burden.
Recently, we had a young lady come in with her boyfriend. He was pressing for an abortion. And the choice of Life and Death was placed upon her. When she came in for her ultrasound, she was well beyond the window for an abortion. When she saw the heartbeat, she said “thank goodness the decision has been made and I didn’t have to make it”. I believe we will see more and more of this type of reaction. I believe we will see women relieved to not carry the burden. Hearing the recount of our young client’s reaction, it reminded me of something written by one of my favorite authors. I want to share a passage with you from The Hiding Place: The Story of Corrie Ten Boom. “Sex,” I was pretty sure, meant whether you were a boy or girl, and “sin” made Tante Jans very angry, but what the two together meant I could not imagine. And so, seated next to Father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, “Father, what is sex sin?” He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last, he stood up, lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor. “Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he said. I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. “It’s too heavy,” I said. “Yes,” he said. “And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now, you must trust me to carry it for you.” We have asked our young ladies to carry a burden far too long that they were never meant to carry. Thank you, Jesus, for carrying our burdens. I pray more women learn to trust and lean on the Abba Father!
In His service - Angela