It's a dark, dark day in America
I remember saying, "Mom, are you sad?
Are you sad with us?
You know, are you sad because we did something?"
And I remember looking at the sky and it was very gray.
January in southern Missouri is very dismal.
It's kind of gray, a little gloomy.
But my mom had this funny tradition.
She liked crisp sheets.
And I remember being outside with my mom to hold the sheets,
you know, 'cause they're so long.
And I remember that day being very different for my mom.
My mom was a super early riser.
It wasn't unusual for her to be up
and around by 5:30 in the morning.
I think probably 'cause that was her only quiet time
with four kiddos running around in the house.
That's when she could sit and
read her Bible, that was how she started every day.
But that day she had the television on when we got up
and I remember thinking, "Hm, that's different."
And I knew something was serious
enough for her to want to watch that.
And she was very, very quiet that day.
And you know, as a nine year old,
you know something's different
but you don't really know what that difference is.
So of course it was my turn to go outside.
And I remember saying, "Mom, are you sad?
Why are you sad?
Are you sad with us?
You know, are you sad because we did something?"
And she said,
"I'm not sad with you.
I'm sad because of what's happening today in our world."
And she said, "There are men making laws
that mean that babies won't be born.
Moms will have the right to not have their babies."
And she got really, really quiet again.
And she,
she bow her head and said, "It's a dark, dark day in America
because women are not being honored.
Women are not being told that their babies matter,
that they matter.
And this many years later, at this age,
I sit and think was that God's tears?
Was that God looking down and being so sad
that we had made that decision?
Was it God's broken heart?
That made everything grey that day?
Roe v. Wade became the law of the land.
And just that conversation that I had with my mom
little did she know at the time
that what her words were became a prediction.
2023 would be the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
More than 60 million babies have been lost.
You think about an entire generation.
How many doctors, astronauts, teachers,
amazing people have we lost,
children who were never given an opportunity
to be what God wanted them to be,
Regardless of the decision that the Supreme Court makes
regarding reversal of Roe v. Wade or that it stands,
that that law of the land stays as is,
our responsibility as the church
is to come alongside that woman.
What we have to tell her,
what we have to show her is that we care about her.
We care about her and her child.
We want her to have hope.
And that means very practical things
because I know the difference
in that woman's life when someone, one person says,
"Hey, I'll go through that pregnancy with you."
8 out of 10 women will tell us,
8 out of 10 post-abortion women will say
if I would've just had one person.
That's heartbreaking to know
that not one person in her life,
a coworker, a girlfriend, a parent, a pastor,
father of the baby, would've said,
"Congratulations, I'll go through this pregnancy with you."
She would've made a different decision.
That's where the church steps in and says, "I'll be the one.
I'll be that person that says,
'Congratulations how can I support you?
I'll go through this pregnancy with you.'"
Our goal, when that woman chooses life,
is to have all the resources she needs to thrive.
We want to give her hope
that she can have her dream of finishing college.
She can have her dream of a career and be a mom.
She doesn't have to be one or the other.
She can have both.
We want to give her hope for the future.