For years I served a local Right to Life chapter and was feeling God lead me in this endeavor, but what I began to see is that an organization can sometimes hinder work that needs to be done. Often one man's project isn't another man's and it ends up a stalemate.

I have found that the hours of time which I was giving to an organization could be better spent teaching my children about "life issues." I found that I could use that same time to write letters to my legislators or to read and keep myself informed of new legislation or projects "in the works" or to keep abreast of the needs of the local Crisis Pregnancy Center. I decided this was much more effective for me.

Now a step further down that same "life road", I see other ways which I can be effective in a pro-life movement. Isn't all life precious to God? So when I make a meal for my sick mother-in-law or send fudge to my mother suffering with M.S. 500 miles away, am I not serving the pro-life movement? If I take a meal to a friend who just had her 5th baby, or offer to babysit so she and her husband can go out to dinner, am I not serving the pro-life movement? When I send a note of concern and encouragement to a friend who is struggling in her marriage, am I not serving in God's pro-life movement?

Please know this... I do support Right to Life and I do support Crisis Pregnancy Centers, but this is not my whole aim as a child of God serving in His Pro-Life Movement. He has called me to love all of life. "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your seed." (Deuteronomy 30:19) I will fight for the life of the unborn and those born already, for the rights of the elderly and the disabled, for the genius and for the dullard, for the rich and the poor. All life is His and He counts every life as a precious treasure ... "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have carved you on the palms of My hands and your walls are continually before Me." (Isiaiah 49:15, 16)

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) Every day, let us resolve to lay down our lives to do the will of the Father through Jesus who laid down His life for us.... the leader of the real Pro-Life Movement.

Links:

Focus on the Family ... with Dr. James Dobson

Citizen Magazine ... published by Focus on the Family

Pregnancy Centers Online ... listings of CPCs in your area and help for you.

Ways you and your family can be Pro-Life

~These are some ideas from friends and some of our own ~

Help your children pick out baby clothes to buy for your local Crisis PregnancyCenter.

Sponsor a needy family during the holidays and involve the whole family in purchasing gifts or baking goodies to take.

Take home-baked goodies to an elderly neighbor or invite them to dinner.

Clean house for someone who is sick or disabled.

Visit the nursing home and sing some old-time tunes for them.

Give a concert as a benefit for the charity of your choice.

Sponsor a billboard with a pro-life, pro-family message.

Take a tea basket to a friend or shut-in and have a cup with them.

Take dinner to a family with a new baby.

Babysit for parents who haven't had a night out alone in a long while.

Play cards or games with your children.

Kiss your husband (or wife) in front of the kids.

Send a card to someone who needs encouragement.

Send a card to a veteran on Veteran's Day.

Visit the sick or shut- ins.

Hug your kids.

Pray for everyone who sent you a Christmas card this year, one daily.

Pray as a family with each member offering a prayer or a "thankful".

Surprise a neighbor or friend with a hot loaf of bread "just because".