What does raising real men have to do with abortion? Everything.
Years ago, we lived in a town with an abortion clinic and often stood outside, offering to help the desperate women who came there. Although everyone had a different story, in many respects they boiled down to this: the baby’s father didn’t take responsibility.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2009, the latest year with data compiled, 85 percent of women who aborted their children were unmarried. Where were the fathers? I had to wonder, in talking to these moms who kept saying, “My boyfriend split” or “My fiance doesn’t want a baby,” if they would have even thought about coming to that place of death if the fathers had been willing to acknowledge the baby.
The really sickening ones are when a mother pulls up with her boyfriend or husband. Her shoulders are down and eyes are sad, but his are determined. He’s going to sacrifice his child on the altar of pleasure and irresponsibility. He’s taking the easy way out. Pay some money, endure her tears, and keep on living for himself.
Ugh. Not the kind of man we want our sons to grow up to be. So, how do we make sure they don’t? Here are some things you can do:
- Teach your sons that sexuality outside of marriage is wrong. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27-28)
- Teach your sons that marriage is a good thing. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.” (Prov. 18:22)
- Teach your sons that men must take care of their wives and children. “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Tim. 5:8)
- Teach your sons that life begins at conception. “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you’ …” (Jer. 1:4-5a)
Children are our messengers to the future. They are the ones that will carry our heritage and beliefs to future generations. There are 55 million children who will never do that. Fifty-five million grandchildren are missing now—slaughtered since abortion was legalized in the United States. What love, what gifts, what joy, what discoveries are we all missing because of their loss?
When parents of boys are doing their job, perhaps the men those boys will become will do theirs, too. And when the majority of men are again providers and protectors, abortion will likely become increasingly rare. May it be so.
Click here for the original article at raisingrealmen.com.
Hal and Melanie Young, authors of the Christian Small Publishers Association 2011 Book of the Year, Raising Real Men, are parents of six boys and two girls. They have homeschooled through eight high-risk pregnancies, three relocations, two decades, and 181 degrees of longitude. Hal and Melanie have served on the Board of Directors of North Carolinians for Home Education for over 14 years, including three terms as President for Hal.
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