The Four-Letter Word I Want My Girls to Hear

There is one word, one four-letter word that I want my girls to know, to hear, to speak, and to embrace.

​Life. L. I. F. E.
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A simple word with immense meaning and even greater implications for… well… life. But today, on this day and many in the past, it means very little.

But in my home it still means something.

My dear daughters, I want you to know that your life is valuable and it was the moment you were conceived when, within mere minutes your DNA was constructed and with it your gender, hair color, personality traits, and the gap in your teeth was decided.

While the decisions of our courts are discouraging and completely unconscionable; it is the sentiments of my fellow human beings that are the most heartbreaking.

They cry rights for all and yet forget the rights of the most defenseless. They plead for gun control, menu control, and environmental regulations as a security for the future of our children and yet want to strip the unborn of their right to any of it.

They have shouted from street corners, government floors, high school gymnasiums and any other place that will give them voice to proclaim that your life, your heart, your beating heart meant nothing until I decided that I wanted you.
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Don’t listen to them.

My sweet girls, and all children, even the ones old and gray by time, you were always important. Your value does not lie in the way I see you or anyone else. Mothers everywhere are teaching their children that they have intrinsic value, that they are beautiful and worthy of being loved. Yet, ironically, that sentiment vanishes into thin air if the person whose value we consider is still in the womb.

Let me say that this isn’t a matter of choice, really, it is a matter of science. Embryology is a science. It is a big word that a lot of people don’t understand but it isn’t religion, it isn’t opinion, it is the study of fact…science. Thanks to this science we know that life starts at conception. That a person is a person, no matter how small.

But our fellow human beings have decided that truth doesn’t matter. This isn’t something new. People have been running from Truth since the beginning of time; fleeing from it and running towards feelings, opinions, ambitions, importance. They want to be gods. They want to be their own god and to admit, truly admit that on all levels all humans have value is to, in some way, admit that intrinsic value is placed there.

Think about it. You don’t know the value of a home until an appraiser comes and assesses it. You don’t know the value of a diamond until an expert inspects and then labels it. And, we can’t know the value of a human until Someone, an Expert with the power to declare, says it is so.
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Therefore they cannot admit, fully admit, that all humans in all forms have intrinsic value. To do so would admit that there is, in fact, a Sovereign over them. They would rather be the ones to place your value and to decide your worth.

No, the Sovereign is not what they want, so they continue to run and hide behind signs and court documents and bury truth in buckets in the back of abortion clinics. They walk around like a stubborn child with their fingers in their ears and mask over their eyes.

And so, according to many in the rest of our society, that tiny nose I saw in the ultrasound didn’t belong to a human. The kicking legs and pulsing heart and growing brain and curly hair were just clumps of cells until it, you, passed the approximate 4 inches to the outside world.

To desecrate life in its most innocent form is to desecrate its Creator. What they don’t realize is that they don’t actually have that kind of power. You can blaspheme, you can commit sacrilege and curse God. But you can’t rob Him of his glory by killing off His creation. But they will try. They will continue to rip, maim, bury and flush countless souls.
To what end?
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They want the world’s future children to have blue oceans but they don’t want the children to live long enough to dip their toes in it. They want a world that gives everyone free education without realizing that there won’t be any children to educate, to dream and to succeed. 

When we, us mommies, are pregnant they tell us to read to you. Why?
Because you can hear.
They tell us to rub our bellies or get prenatal massages. Why?
Because you can feel.
They tell us to sing songs to you. Why?
Because you can recognize the sound of our voices.
They tell us to eat certain foods and wait for your reaction. Why?
Because you can taste and have your own preferences for flavor.

When you were in my tummy, you laughed, you cried, you smiled, you danced, you kicked, and you got the hiccups. You were you.

And when I finally had the chance to look into your face and wrap my arms around you, you taught me something. You taught me how to love something more than myself. You taught me how to love so much it felt like my chest would break open. You taught me how to sing lullabies through happy tears. You taught me how to live beyond myself.

Babies force the selfish to be selfless. And that’s what they don’t like.

As I’ve always said to you, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You matter. All lives matter. Why? Because God made you and He loves you.

This world has nothing, absolutely nothing, to say about your worth or your value. They don’t get an opinion, so don’t give them one. Your life is no more important now that you sleep in a big girl bed than it was when you were in a crib. Your life is no more important now that you can walk than it was when all you could do was crawl. Your life is always and has always been of immeasurable importance.

Please, remember.

This doesn’t apply only to you, but to everyone. Everyone is important, no matter their skin color, their orientation, their lifestyle, their nationality, their language, or their religion. Every person matters because they are created by God and loved by God.

Life.
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 A four letter word these days. But one I want you to embrace. Embrace it in every sense of it. And claim it. Life matters. You matter.

​ “Truly children are a gift from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Psalm 127:3)
 
“You knit me in my mother’s womb . . . nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret” (Psalm 139:13,15)
 
 “You have been my guide since I was first formed . . . from my mother’s womb you are my God” (Psalm 22:10-11).
 
“God… from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace” (St. Paul to the Galatians 1:15)