Stand Up and Cheer For Life!

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Stand Up and Cheer For Life!

By Rebekah L. Holt

    Every first Sunday in October marks the time for Life Chain.  Despite the Life Chain being organized in a local area for 15 years, many people still do not know what it is all about.  Life Chain is a national event that thousands of people all across the United States stand publicly unified to honor the sanctity of human life.

    To support and celebrate life should be considered  a privilege for every Pro-Life American.  Working grassroots with the Life Chain and dedicating one hour once a year to stand for life is something almost all can do and make time for.

    My family and I have participated several years with others in our local Life Chain. For me, participating in this event means much more than just standing around, holding an educational sign for one hour.  It is an opportunity to stand to:

• Remember that 1-out-of-4 babies are missing due to abortion. 1.2 million babies a year are aborted in the United States.¹

 

• Hopefully save the life of a baby today or tomorrow and a mother from life-lasting hurt. Research shows that having an abortion does physically and emotionally harm the mother.²

 

• Honor the 2 million US couples a year that are waiting to adopt the "unwanted" babies.  If all the 1.2 million babies that are aborted in one year had been adopted, there still would be 800,000 couples waiting for a child to adopt.³

 

• Honor the parents and caregivers of cognitively and physically challenged children and adults, who have daily chosen life and diligently, selflessly serve those with special needs.

 

• Honor the elderly who chose and fought for life so the next generation of Americans might live to protect and defend the rights, lives, freedoms and futures of the unborn and living citizens of the United States.

 

• Honor the physically and mentally challenged that look to the strong to protect and defend their lives, their freedoms and their futures.

 

• In belief of the Bible that speaks of God's infinite value of human life in creating mankind in His own image, fearfully and wonderfully made (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139: 14-16).

    Undoubtedly, to celebrate life is well worth the "trouble" of standing for one hour, once a year to make a public statement in honor of the unborn, the physically and mentally disabled and invalid, the elderly, and those of us who enjoy living because our mothers and fathers chose life.

    The first Sunday of October, come join your local Life Chain to stand up and cheer for the living and to remember those wanted aborted babies that are M-I-L, Missing-In-Life. Bring your family and friends!  Rain or shine.  Water, umbrellas, lawn chairs and strollers are welcomed! For more information about the Life Chain in your area, visit www.lifechain.net.

Please Choose Life!

References

1. Rachel K. Jones, Mia R. S. Zolna, Stanley K. Henshaw and Lawrence B. Finer Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health: Volume 40, Issue 1, March 2008, Guttmacher Institute, http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/psrh/full/4000608.pdf

2. WebMD, Women's Health, "Manual and vacuum aspiration for abortion" http://women.webmd.com/manual-and-vacuum-aspiration-for-abortion

3. "There Are Up To 36 Couples Waiting For Every Baby Placed For Adoption." Market Wire. FindArticles.com 11 Jul, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_20050229/ai_mark05048327/

Waiting on the Lord

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Waiting on the Lord

By Rebekah L. Holt

Written in 2005

    It is morning! Popping out of bed, I grabbed the binoculars, opened the blinds to look out on our front pasture.  In disgust and disappointment, I turned away saying, "Are those two mares ever going to foal?  I'm sick of waiting."

    Spring every year brings for me an excitement with great expectations of the first foal's arrival at our family's pony farm.  As the manager, I have the responsibility to care for our herd.  Though I enjoy watching, checking, and waiting on our little mares, after a while, the splendor of a foal is soon swallowed up by getting tired of waiting.  It was not until this year, that I really have had a "spiritual" lesson for this part of my life.

    After a week of disappointments of one particular mare fooling my predictions of an early March foal, I began to feel rather silly that I continued to watch and check the mare twice a day.  "Surely, you know she's not going to have that foal today or tomorrow," I would tell myself.  However, it occurred to me that I must not stop checking the mare.  "One day, she's going to be ready and I'll know that I know, but until then, I must continue watching, waiting and checking so I can tell the difference of ready and not ready." It struck me that this is how we are to live our life in serving our Heavenly Father.  I had never really considered that a vast part of our Christian walk is spent waiting on the Lord.

    In looking up wait in my Bible concordance, I was amazed to find that waiting on the Lord was just a part of the writer's lives.  They had to wait too! These particular scriptures stood out to me:

Job 14:14 "...All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come."

Micah 7:7 "But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."

Habakkuk 2:3 "For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint.  Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it; it will be behindhand on this appointed day."

(Emphasis added. Amplified)

    Today we see Christians all around us giving up, panicked and ceasing to really follow Christ.  Looking from a distance, we can say, "Oh, if they only waited, the Lord was bringing such and such about." However, when it is our lives, are we willing to wait, what seems forever, for God to advance us from a hard and tiring place?  When things are slow or on "pause" can we clearly see that the slow, trying times are part of God's plan for our lives?  Just like that mare, my waiting will eventually be rewarded.  I will obtain a prize in a beautiful foal (I hope beautiful anyway!).  That foal will arrive; it is just not ready to come yet.  The Lord will not always have us waiting for a particular something forever, but He may always have us waiting for something in our life.  Waiting is just a stepping stone to advance us forward in our Christian walk.

    So I encourage you to not give up!  Do not grow weary.  We cannot see God's infinite and perfect plan, but we can stay in Him, be guided and wait patiently for His blueprint of our life to be fulfilled.  But until then, I am going to go check on that mare!

The Rest of the Story...

After 3 weeks of faithful waiting on those two past due mares, Rebekah was blessed with TWO foals born on the same day and on her birthday!  Rebekah was so busy watching "Gracie" all throughout the wee hours of morning, she missed "Sister."  Sister presented "Hosanna," a beautiful black overo filly that morning. What a birthday surprise!  That evening, "Gracie" foaled "Bonita," a dainty little cremello filly. What is extremely incredible is that both fillies were the EXACT colors Rebekah had desired as well...the Lord blessed in a very meaningful and personal way! And to add the cream, another mare, "Lilly" foaled a gorgeous sorrel colt, "Champ" the next day!