Out of the mouths of babes...

Last year, I was downtown with Carter and I went looking for the abortion memorial that used 50 million pennies to mark 50 million abortions in our country since Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in 1973. I didn't realize he would be fascinated by the pennies (should have known), but he was and had a myriad of questions about them. I finally realized the opportunity to share something incredibly important with my son. At that time, he was in five-year-old kindergarten at a Christian, private school, but having attended the same school myself and come home with serious "birds and bees" questions in the first grade, I knew this was a chance to tell him the truth before someone else told him the lie. I am so thankful for that day. I kept it simple, explaining how sometimes the law is contrary to God's commands, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and King Nebuchudnezzar; like Daniel and King Darius; like people who today spread the gospel in countries that are closed to the gospel. It goes on and on. We have choices to make.


Who will we obey?

I told Carter how our law says that it's perfectly fine for a mommy to kill her baby before it ever even leaves her tummy. Carter, to say the least, was horrified and expressed, right off the bat, that he knew this was against God's law. He didn't have a ton of questions that day, but I think a good foundation was laid as we discussed how many pennies were there, and how big the container would have to be if each penny were a little baby. What an overwhelming thought!

The memorial being filled. If you go downtown, to the corners of Mississippi and Congress Streets, you will see how full it is now... It makes a great point of discussion with teens and really, children of any appropriate age.

Last week, Carter and Daniel went with a group from church to do some work at the CPC, a Christian abortion alternative clinic in Jackson. Again, we got to talk with Carter about how the work he was doing would be serving people who try to help very confused women make a choice to give life to their babies. I think the issue took root. Several hours later, we had family devotion. We prayed and when it came Carter's time to pray, he prayed probably a good three to five minute prayer interceding for the little babes who are killed, begging God to make it end. I often wonder if we do our child an injustice by telling him these things at such a young age, but when I heard the strength of his prayer, I was encouraged. THAT is what it's all about, isn't it, raising kids? Truth being rooted deeply in our children and seeing them living the truth, not just knowing it? I truly pray that as he and his sister grow, we will continue to share the truth, and that they will some day be a mighty man and woman of God, going wherever He would lead. I don't want to raise my kids to just live in suburbia (unless, of course, that is where God calls them). I want to raise them to share the truth with others, so that God's kingdom can come!