It’s About The People
Why is it so easy to treat people like they are a “yes” or a “no”? Why is it so easy to judge? I think it is probably in our nature. We speak about care and love, but when it all faces us, it’s easier to cast a vote…for, or against. We are faced with a lot of decisions to make this election year, but this post isn’t about those decisions, it’s about the people. Sometimes we need to stop thinking about what we feel is best for everyone and just start thinking about everyone’s best. There are people in our area, and around the country, doing just that.
Everyday, our communities deal with teen pregnancy. Here are some stats…
-One million teens in the USA will become pregnant over the next twelve months. 95% of those pregnancies are unintended. Roughly one third will end in abortion; one third will end in miscarriage; and one third will continue their pregnancy to term and keep the baby.
-More than half of them are 17 years old or younger when they have their first pregnancy.
-Approximately 40% of young women become pregnant before they reach 20 years old.*
Our political system attempts to legislate it’s control. People around town declare their opinions. Our education system is trying to figure out how to manage it. While all this is going on, there are groups of people that are focusing on those caught in the midst of this storm. The immediate care and attention of a young woman going through one of the most amazing and beautiful opportunities a woman has to go through, while dealing with the life changing experience that is taking place at such a young age and the huge decisions that could unfold around them.
The Rogue Valley Teen Pregnancy Center is “a Christian-based organization, focused on promoting the values of the sanctity of human life, premarital abstinence, and marital fidelity to the community”. They encourage and support abstinence education in schools and churches. They also provide parenting, adoption and post-abortion counseling, including crisis counseling.
Here is some of their mission statement:
-Sanctity of Human Life Ethic: This ethic and view of life is a cornerstone of traditional Western civilization-“the reverence for and sacredness of each and every human life based upon its intrinsic worth and equal value regardless of its stage or condition from conception to natural death.”
-Abstinence: The resting place of your sexual activity until marriage.
-Fidelity: A commitment to emotional and physical faithfulness to one’s spouse in the covenant of marriage.
-Crisis Pregnancy: An unplanned, untimely or unwanted pregnancy which results in emotional, financial, relation or physical stress in the lives of the birth-mother or her significant others.
What amazes me about the pregnancy center is their boldness to champion life. They are not a political organization they are a personal organization. They don’t fight at the polls, they fight in the trenches. This impresses me. I know that I am one that can get lost in the process and forget the people.
Also, the center does this all for free. No strings attached, no bills, no expectations. Genuine care, attention and love.
Today, as I fast, I pray for those who work in the Rogue Valley Teen Pregnancy Center. I pray for their wisdom. I pray for there strength. I pray for their own families, who I am sure often feel the affects of what they deal with everyday. I also pray that they will continue to stay focused on caring for and loving these young women.
