During our last leadership meeting before the kick-off of the Spring 2009 campaign, Audra emphasized the range of emotions that we may experience while out at the vigil site. As a past participant, I can verify that you do have moments where your emotions run the gambit while out at the vigil site in prayer; those emotions went anywhere from sadness, sorrow, anger, fear, indignation, etc. How do we handle these emotions? I think that first and foremost, of course, we look to God and ask for His help and guidance to act in a loving way. In His infinite wisdom, God reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:1, 4-7 that:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

I hope that I can keep these verses at the front of my mind during this campaign; I hope that they will shape my heart and mind for the entire 40 days. However, last night at the Kick Off Rally, another point was made that seemed to have a great impact on more than one of us. Our speaker Maureen Yockey, Executive Director of Alternatives Pregnancy Center (Denver, CO) shared with us her first response anytime she is asked why she thinks that abortion is wrong; her simple response is “Because it hurts women”. She was careful to tell us that she does not imply that this is the ONLY reason she is against abortion, but she feels like it is an important piece of the puzzle that is often left out of this issue. She nudged us to remember that there are always at least two victims from an abortion, the baby and the mother.

So, my prayer is that if I daily join these thoughts with the wonderful words God has given us in 1 Corinthians, the first emotion that I will have for all the people (mothers, babies, fathers, grandparents, clinic workers, etc.) we are praying for during this time God has called us to will be…love.

At the end of this post I want to share a video of a song that God continued to “put in my path” last fall during the campaign. I honestly think that He did it to keep reminding me that there are a variety of victims of abortion and many of them are the mother’s left behind to deal with the decision she made.