February Pro-Life Challenge: Immerse Yourself
Do you remember the moment you aligned yourself with the pro-life movement?
My draw to the pro-life movement started young, after passing by a small brick building in my hometown, its lawn dotted with tiny crosses. (I later learned it was the Knights of Columbus building.) Curious, I asked my mom what the crosses stood for. I must have been young enough that she didn’t want to shock me with the brutality of it, so she said something along the lines of, “Those crosses are for the babies whose moms decided they didn’t want them in their tummies anymore.”
As a child, I never knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I knew who I wanted to be. I wanted to be a mom. I loved taking care of baby dolls, and, as a middle child, was a natural caretaker.
It shocked me that not everyone felt the same way.
I was hardly surprised when, as a high school student, a pro-life story began taking shape in my head. My goal with pro-life fiction is always to stir up empathy within the pro-life movement, because sadly, many within the movement don’t carry out their convictions with love. Many see the issue as black and white, spouting off, “Just choose life,” without realizing that unplanned pregnancies are often rooted in trauma. It’s often a gut-wrenching decision that leaves women with deep, long-lasting wounds.
I’m happy that I’ve been able to achieve this. A sweet friend of mine recently read my first book “Another Ending” and wrote this review: “Confession – Christian fiction is not my favorite genre. But Sara has my attention! Her honesty with emotions and hard, gut wrenching life heartache draws compassion from your heart for people who make choices you might disagree with. Her presentation of the gospel is genuine and deep recognizing that faith is necessary, a gift from
God to believe his truth when we don’t and probably won’t ever understand why
hard things happen.”
It’s so tempting, especially in today’s digital age when we can hide behind our computer screens, to share our opinions in an unkind way. To let our most secret thoughts about women who have abortions and those working within the abortion industry—that they’re heartless monsters—dictate how we respond when we don’t agree with their choices.
But what if, instead, we let compassion dictate how we respond? What if we walked a mile in the shoes of a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy and imagined, really imagined, what it would feel like? How we would respond?
And what if instead of simply shaking our heads at the state of the world, we rolled up our sleeves and got busy changing it?
If you’d like to roll your sleeves up and get busy—if you’d like to become a pro-life champion in 2022—you’ve come to the right place. Each month I’ll share some tips on how you can do so, then challenge you to go out and put them into practice.
In January, I shared my tips with my newsletter subscribers. Moving forward, I’m going to be blogging about them so I can reach a larger audience. January’s challenge was fairly easy: cultivate empathy and start dismantling some of the preconceived notions you may hold about women who choose abortion and those working within the abortion industry. I suggested picking up a copy of my book “Another Ending” and diving into a heart-breaking unplanned pregnancy. To see firsthand that choosing life isn’t as black and white as we wish it was. To try and understand what someone would make a choice you so strongly disagree with. You can buy/download that here: https://amzn.to/2qZ7mvd
I also suggested watching the movie “Unplanned,” which tells the story of how Abby Johnson, one of the biggest names in the pro-life movement, left her position as director of a Planned Parenthood facility. To see how she became involved in the first place and why she stayed as long as she did, truly believing she was helping women.
February’s challenge is to fully immerse yourself in the pro-life movement. An easy first step is to follow the people and organizations faithfully working to put an end to abortion in our country on their social media platforms. Here are my favorites:
As you’re scrolling through your social media feeds and come across posts by these people and organizations, stop and pray—that they would be strong and courageous, never giving up the fight, and also for abortion to come to an end in our nation.
The fight to end abortion feels too big to ever happen, but instead of becoming discouraged and falling prey to an “oh, well, there’s really nothing to be done” mentality, just start small, friend. Give these people and organizations a Like on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to and listen to their podcasts, then follow any calls to action they give as the Lord leads you to. And PRAY. Do NOT underestimate the power of prayer.
Start small. Pray with great faith. And see what the Lord will do.
