I’ve always loved a good song. As a teen in our church choir, I recall singing the chorus, “Life is precious, life is sweet.”
Those words became a part of me. I believe all life is precious from the womb to the tomb, as the saying goes. To take it further: I support life from conception to natural death. It’s the “to” that I want to highlight here.
Often, we who are pro-life advocate against abortion and speak up on behalf of adoption. I certainly do both, and my husband, Nick, and I are patiently (and not so patiently, some days) waiting for our child to come home to us—from a brave woman or couple who chooses life instead of abortion. But we also want to support life in other ways. One way we’ve chosen to do so is through child sponsorship.
I remember when Nick and I were at a Warren Barfield concert, listening to him sing “Love Is Not a Fight.” (You can tell we love music!) After he finished singing, Barfield started sharing how he supports Food for the Hungry. He explained that this organization works to end poverty and help families stay together through child sponsorship.
With only a small donation every month, this organization helps a child stay with his or her family and thrive through health, education, water and agriculture programs—along with spiritual guidance. We were so touched that we immediately signed up to sponsor a little girl.
She has been our only little girl for years, but we help her in honor of the little girl we hope to bring home as adoptive parents. She lives in Nicaragua, and we plan to visit her one day.
Later, in researching the effectiveness of child sponsorship programs, we were encouraged by what we found. An extensive 2013 study following more than 10,000 families who received assistance from Compassion International in six countries showed “sponsored children are more likely to graduate both secondary school and college, have salaried employment, and be leaders in their communities” as reported by Christianity Today.
But we couldn’t stop there. So we began to sponsor two little brothers, in honor of our nephews. It has been incredible to receive letters and pictures from these three precious children, whose lives have been greatly improved through our small monthly donation. We know that there are fewer orphans in the world because of sponsorship.
At the end of that song we used to sing in high school, we would repeat the words “Life is precious, precious, precious.” Softer and softer, the words trailed off to leave the listener contemplating these words. We should all be contemplating: Life is precious—all life.
We must continue to speak out against abortion, advocate for adoption … and take that next step to do more. Maybe it’s foster care, child sponsorship, rescuing vulnerable women from sex trafficking, or supporting those on the front lines of these ministries.
I encourage you to engage in prayer and listen in to how God desires for you to act. Let’s live out how we are pro-all-life.
Laurel Shaler, Ph.D., is a chair at Liberty University in the Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies. She is a former therapist for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Laurel writes on the intersection of faith, culture, and emotional well-being at drlaurelshaler.com.
Reprinted with permission from Bound4LIFE.
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