I’ve been thinking lately about what it must be like to be a young girl who stands for LIFE amidst a culture that does not agree with the message. It’s been about 13 years since I was a high school student, and so much in our culture has changed and intensified in that short time.

When I was in high school I was “pro-choice, but personally pro-life.” Yep. A tad bit schizophrenic on that view if I do say so myself. I knew that if I ever found myself in the situation of having to choose between ending the life of my child and having the baby, I would choose to have the baby. The fact that another girl in the same situation could choose differently didn’t really faze me. I mean, I felt for her, wished she would choose to not have an abortion, but really, it was none of my business and it wasn’t my body.

Fast-forward to my freshman year in a theatre conservatory where the acting program was high pressure since anyone could get the boot in the first or the second year.  I was 18, completely insecure in pretty much every area of my life, and so desperate for someone to call me beautiful and love me that I crossed lines that I promised myself I would never cross. I drank, smoked, partied, clubbed often, got high, and had sex for the first time all in my first year of college. A day after my drunken night where I caved in and started having sex with my boyfriend, I freaked out. I sought the council of a professor that I trusted, found out that her husband was a pharmacist, and inquired about the emergency contraceptive called Plan B. So much for “personally pro-life.”

After calming down about the situation and shooting up some rapid fire prayers to a God I kind of believed was there but didn’t know personally, I found out that I wasn’t pregnant.

I share all of this with you to say that I know the emotions of what a girl at the beginning of all the possibilities in her life and I know the thoughts that flood her mind when she realizes she’s made a mistake. I know what it’s like to get a peek inside dreams being crushed and the course of life being shifted and focused on a child when I didn’t even know how to take care of myself. I know what its like to lose myself and get caught up with the sin that so easily entangles and abandon, in a moment, all that I was taught as a young girl.

But on top of all of this, I know the power of the blood of Jesus– the blood that washes white as snow. I know that He does not see me as I once was nor does He condemn me for I have chosen the road of repentance and His free gift of salvation. He is my only hope and the only hope for so many girls that are headed back to school in just a few short weeks.

For the one who speaks up for LIFE and is headed back to campus/high school: Give up your desire for popularity. Prepare your tongue to say things that are not well received among a culture that values convenience more than LIFE. You have been sent out like a sheep among the wolves (Matthew 10:16) and surely, if you are going to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and are appointed to die in their mother’s womb (Proverbs 31:8), they may try to devour you. But try as they may, they cannot touch your soul. For just as Esther was called, you have been called for such a time as this (Esther 4:14).

Wear your life band (or VIDA band) and open your mouth. Constantly.

Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America.

Let God consume you. Every thought, every word, every action. Give them all to Him. Get acquainted with things that weigh heavy on His heart.  The only way to know what makes the Creator of the Universe weep is to spend time with Him. When a child in the womb is detached from the uterine wall of it’s mother and the dream that God dreamt when forming that child is stripped away, surely it is on the heart of the Father. When a girl who finds herself confronted with a situation of an unplanned pregnancy, her boyfriend leaves her, and her family abandons her, surely the One seated on the throne is moved, and it should move you too. Love her like Jesus loves her. Don’t criticize and don’t condemn. Reach out your hand and don’t let go.

You are the light of the world.

Rise and shine, baby. Rise and shine.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”