40 years too long (Written January 20th)

"Where have all the graveyards gone? Gone to flowers, everyone"....or so that Pete Seeger song goes (famously performed by the folk group Peter, Peter and Mary). If you aren't familiar with this song, it is a very touching and poignant song often performed by folk groups in protest to the Vietnam War-- all those flowers gone to graveyards in remembrance of so many, many dead. I guess it natural, then, that this song has been running through my head lately as the black cloud of the anniversary of Roe V. Wade will soon be upon us.

February is the month of my birth and since I was born after January 22nd 1973, I consider myself to be a survivor. I survived the true war on women: I was able to make it out of my mother's womb alive. My birthday serves as a yearly reminder to thank God for giving me the mother He did as I realize that I was only a mother away from no birthday at all. It is beyond sad for me to think of those 55 million casualties, many friends I will never know, blessings from their lives that I will never receive.

55 million dead babies: far too many flowers.

This Tuesday, the media and many so called feminist leaders will tell us (as they do every year at this time) that we should be celebrating this historic landmark "civil rights" decision for women. Oh yes, we'll all have to somehow try and keep our lunches down when gray-haired feminist after gray-haired feminist is rolled out for all to see celebrating this so-called right to choose. We will shake our heads in disbelief at hearing the voice of our own president joining this chorus of celebration: A man whose voice no one would have ever heard had his mother exercised the kind of "choice" he not only celebrates, but now mandates. The legal victory for reproductive choice that was based on a lie, turning our wombs into battlegrounds and giving pregnant women only one choice: Should I be the mother of a live baby or a dead one?

All the while women are waiting to finally get what we supposedly won. Especially, in light of what so many women have clearly lost.

So many women have lost their self-esteem and any healthy concept of self-worth. Women struggle with body image issues and issues of self-harm. Many women have lost the connection to their own bodies, this connection severed so violently, that they are easily duped into celebrating harmful chemicals and devices as "healthcare." Many young women have no idea of their true worth and the value of their own identity, sacrificing their precious bodies (detached from their minds and hearts) at the altar of unworthy male attention. Women have unwittingly surrendered the ability to recognize true love, settling for a weekend hook-up instead of embracing the gift of a lifetime love-up.

When I was little, my Dad would often tell me Bible stories and he never missed an opportunity to tell me that I was even more valuable than that pearl of great price. My parents raised me to believe that my body and my sexuality were gifts from a loving God. My father was present, emotionally and physically, and somewhere in all of this I got the message they were so carefully trying to send: I was worthy of love.

I wonder what our society might look like if more girls were raised with this kind of loving care. Maybe we wouldn't be in need of such landmark "civil rights" decisions.

Yet, we have reason to be encouraged. Women, especially young women, are embracing the pro-life movement like never before. More and more people identify with the pro-life movement and are more comfortable speaking out against abortion to family and friends. We routinely see Planned Parenthood clinics closing, just like the local one here in my area that closed about 2 years ago. In addition to the pro-abortion clinics that are closing, we are seeing many new pro-life initiatives like The Guiding Star Project and specifically pro-woman, pro-life clinics such as the Women's Care Center in my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota opening this year right across the street from the local abortion clinic.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5)

So as we embark on 40 years of dead little babies and a trail of wounded mothers and fathers, let us pray for the next forty years:

Let us pray that God will make us signs of His love to women so they many never have to feel such despair.

Let us pray that little girls everywhere are raised to know what a gift being a woman truly is and are raised in the beautiful knowledge of their true worth.

Let us pray for an end to abortion and for the healing of so many wounded mothers and fathers made victims by this culture of death.

Finally, let us pray that we may someday soon see an end to what we have been forced to witness over these last 40 years: 55 million dead babies, without flowers, who aren't remembered in graveyards.