standing for life (let's break the silence and jump in.)

As a little girl, I spent countless hours inside the walls of my local crisis pregnancy clinic. Not the most conventional place for a kid to hang out, but my mom was the director of one (now three!) in Maryland, and I loved spending time there. I spent my sick days on the couches where women were counseled and prayed for on other days of the week, I played with the tiny plastic models that showed how a fetus grows-- even the tiny 13 week model which fit perfectly inside my little palm had itty-bitty baby features. I stole candy from the receptionist's desk and flipped through magazines in the waiting room. But more than all that, I grew up hearing of the tough decisions that so many women have to make when they are faced with an unexpected pregnancy, and listening to the joy in my mom's voice when some un-named client decided to choose life for her unborn baby. At a young age, I knew the horrors of abortion, and the developmental milestones for babies in the womb. Deep in my heart, a fierce love for the unborn imbedded itself. 

So, as each new video has appeared on my screen this summer, detailing another horrific aspect of Planned Parenthood's deception of women and profiting from selling baby parts, I've felt more and more helpless and horrified. I've been surprised at the silence around this issue on my Instagram and Twitter feed, and felt scared into silence myself. I realize that not everyone who follows or reads along with me shares my beliefs and I guess I was worried about offending or saying the wrong thing. 

I think it's easy to say that if you haven't been in xyz situation, than you don't have a right to speak to it. Truth be told, I haven't had an unplanned pregnancy or faced raising a child in a single parent home. But why should this keep me from raising my voice, speaking out against the murder of innocent lives, and advocating for better resources for pregnant women in need? Women deserve to have better resources than abortion. Unborn children deserve better than to have their lives ripped away from them and their body parts sold for profit. And so, I decided to break the silence on my own Instagram feed, and use the most powerful weapon I know to use. 

Each day this week, I've been praying for a different aspect of this abortion and life issue. I've been posting prompts over on my Instagram feed, inviting others to join with me in prayer for men and women hurting from abortion, for abortion workers, for our government officials. I've lost several hundred followers, but mainly, I've been greeted with a hunger from the women in my Instagram community who are ready to pray, to speak out, to do something about the atrocities that are occurring in our nation. Maybe you are one of those men or women who are ready to get involved. 

Today, I'm inviting you to pray with me about how you might jump in. God might be calling you to open your home to foster or adoption, or He may want you to start small and set aside a monthly donation to your local pregnancy clinic. I've listed some links below to help kickstart some ideas for you. Get creative, do some research, and find out where God is calling you. 

Donate to your local pregnancy clinic.  Just a little over $1 can help provide free prenatal vitamins for a woman who has chosen life, and $300 can provide a life-altering ultrasound to a woman feeling pressure to abort. 

Volunteer at a crisis pregnancy clinic.   Take a free training class to become a counselor, or if you're a nurse, you can donate your time to provide free STD testing, pregnancy tests and sonograms to abortion-minded women. Or even do something as simple as spending some time in the office helping fold brochures and praying over the work that is being done there. 

Donate to And Then There Were None, a ministry that provides counseling and resources to abortion workers wishing to leave the industry and heal. 

Love on and support young pregnant mamas through a ministry like Embrace Grace.

Pray and fast with 40 Days for Life or join a vigil this fall. 

"He has told you, O man, what is good: And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8