I'm Pregnant

PREGNANT: adjective

1.having a child or other offspring developing in the body; with child or young, as a woman or female mammal.

No, I am not pregnant with child. I hear some of your sighs of relief.
For those of you who got a little excited thinking that Eric and I may be having another child. Thank you. But we will keep you posted on further developments. :)


2.fraught, filled, or abounding (usually followed by with)
 
I am pregnant with joy.
 
Over the past few months, I have listened, read, and conversed with people from this great state and others that care about life. It didn't matter what side of the aisle of proposition 26 that the idividuals stood on, I heard over and over that people cared about life. That makes me happy.
 
 I am pregnant with expectation.
 
Like I said in my post When I vote yes...., I think a lot is expected from us. If we value life, our words need to be followed with actions. Don't just talk about it! Do something! I have spent the morning praying and asking God to show me ways that I can show others that I value life and love others like He does. He put in my mind so many ways.
 
3.teeming or fertile; rich (often followed by in): a mind pregnant in ideas.
 
At first, I thought of big things, like starting new ministries, adopting children, mission trips, changing jobs, or moving to another neighborhood, city, state or country. God may be calling you to one of these things. But then, I began to think of all the small ways that I needed to be obedient to now. I could value the lives of the neighbors I live by now, by getting to know them better, being their friend and helping meet their needs. I can drive someone who doesn't have a car to their appointments. Like a friend of mine suggested, I could provide childcare for someone who can't afford it. I can make food, or take clothing or home items to ministries already established. I can volunteer an hour to pray, counsel, clean, or do office work for them too.



4.full of meaning; highly significant: a pregnant utterance. 5.of great importance or potential; momentous: a pregnant moment in the history of the world.

I am pregnant with hope.

For those of you who are excited  and relieved that proposition 26 didn't pass but said you care about life, show the world you do care. Those of you who are sad or heavy hearted because of election results from yesterday: chin up! You have work to do. What if one group emerged from this election? What if we were all Mississippians for Life? What if we all walked the talk and respected each life to come and those that are already here?

This could be "a pregnant moment in the history of the world".


So lets all get pregnant! Let's all grow in expectation and joy as we work until the Lord's return. Let's all love like He does. Let's stop pointing fingers and talking and get the ministry started. Spend some time on your knees and in God's word and run to the place He is sending you.

Romans 8:24-28


The Message (MSG)

22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.



Definitions courtesy of dictionary.com

When I vote yes....

Okay, I have more to say.

I wanted to add to what I wrote previously. I told you that I would vote yes on 26.There is a responsibility that comes with voting yes. Because I choose to vote yes, I also choose the following things:

1. I choose to pray daily and fervently about foster care and adoption. I choose to be open to either in our future.

2. I choose to be open to, prayerful about, and looking for opportunities to help those that are in crisis pregnancy situations. No matter how small I think my contribution might be, I want to be avaliable to help. My heart, my home, my pocketbook, and my love are prayerfully open to them.

3. I choose to support mothers and fathers who struggle to provide for their family.

4. I choose to spend time with children who need love and leadership because their parents are absent either by choice or by necessity.

5. I choose not to abandon the babies I fight for after they leave the womb.

6. I choose to withhold judgement and give out love instead.

I can't do everything but I can do something.

What Can I Say?

I've found myself at my keyboard, staring at a blank screen so often this past month. Every attempt to put my heart into words has failed. What can I say that hasn't been said by someone else?What if the person reading it takes my words in a different way than I mean? My vote is my own personal decision. I don't have to share what I think. But, maybe you want to hear it anyway. So, because the election is TOMORROW, I will try now.

I know you have probably seen this question over and over but I will include it here again:

"Should the term 'person' be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof?"

When I read those words for the first time, I knew what they meant to me. My question was, "what will this mean to those that interpret and defend our laws as they apply this proposition to our lives?". Frankly, I got a little scared.

You know what I didn't do after that? I didn't panic. I didn't poll my friends about the issue. I didn't believe everything that I read on Facebook.

You know what I did do? I prayed. I asked God to take away the fear and give me a sound mind. I poured out my concerns to Him. I listened for His answer. I read His word to see what He says about personhood, fertilization, cloning and the functional equivalent thereof. I sought wise council from my husband and a few others whom I trust, whom I know prayferfully consider issues, whom I know seek God's will through application of Scripture. I weighed the information against what I know to be true.

This is the conclusion I came to:

I believe that a fertilized embryo is a person. This proposition protects those persons.

If this amendment takes away some or all birth control, I trust that God can handle that.
If this amendment limits IVF or takes it away, I trust God can handle that.
If this amendment limits healthcare in any way, I trust God can handle that.

I have never been raped. I have never conceived a child by an abuser. I am so grieved that this happens. But the fact that the child is conceived in those situations does not make the child any less of a person. I believe that child has a right to life too. I trust God to heal in these situations.

I do believe that the life of the mother will be considered in light of non-viable pregnancies, i.e. ectopic and molar pregnancies. I trust God has the lives of those mothers in His hands too.

I don't know what "unintended consequences" that the words "cloning or the funtional equivalent thereof" will have in the distant future, but I trust God can handle that.

For those of you who will read this and say that God doesn't have anything to do with this, I beg to differ. The Creator of the universe has everything to do with everything.

All life is precious. I believe that this proposition adds to that and doesn't make any other life less valuable.

So I thank God in advance for the outcome tomorrow and know that God already knows what it is and can handle it.

I will vote yes tomorrow on Initiative 26.

So pray, pray, pray. On your face in the floor if you have to. But get peace about your vote tomorrow and go cast it however God leads you.




Philippians 4:5-7

New King James Version (NKJV)

"Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Football, ESPN, and Other Romantic Notions

Most of you know that I work at night. I never thought that I would be able to do it when I first started it, but I really don't mind it. Except sometimes. I usually have a little more trouble with it in the fall of the year. Times when the days are shorter and I drive to work in the dark, when the days are cooler and I want to be snuggled at home, when Eric and the children arrive at home just in time for me to leave and are making plans for some fun activity at home without me. The only way I know to describe it is being homesick. 

It doesn't last for very long. As soon as I get to work and see my friends there and get started taking care of others the feeling fades. But it starts a short while before I leave in the evening. I felt this way for the first time this year last night. I mentioned it to Eric as I put my shoes on. He paused to encourage me. He wrapped a strong arm around my shoulders and whispered words of comfort. "Just think, tomorrow night, at 7:00 pm, we will all be together as a family, watching the game of the year in our living room."

I smiled archly. "Yes, I had forgotten about that. Alabama football does give me a reason to go on."

He smiled back and squeezed my arm, "Just think of the recruiting possibilites when we beat LSU! All the graduates will say, 'I want to play for that team'". I rolled my eyes and gave him a big hug back, enjoying his excitement.

When Eric and I were dating and football season rolled around, I remember asking him innocently, "Do you really care that much about whether they win or not? I mean it doesn't really have anything to do with you, does it?" When Eric came too after he fainted (just kidding but there was a lot of shock involved), he tried to explain why he cared so much. He told me things about watching "The Bear" as a boy, memorizing stats, and  following the players for their whole careers. He told me about his first time in Bryant-Denny stadium. His eyes gleamed as he spoke of National Championships.

You see, I didn't understand. Growing up in our house, football was never that big of a deal. Sure, we watched the Egg Bowl at Thanksgiving and I had even been to a State game. But I didn't love it like he did.

Boy, did I learn a lot those first few years! I knew I was really getting somewhere when Eric allowed me to stay in the house during and Alabama game. For a while I was banished at game time because I talked during the game. I dared to speak when it wasn't even about the game. I know. I know. With time I got the gist of what was happening. I learned that talking was permited during commercials and at half time after the sportscasters synopsis of the first half. I learned to be quiet if they lost and to cheer appropriately they won. I learned that "we" won or "we" lost.

I didn't loathe this education. I wanted to learn so that I could please my husband. Not because he was tyrannical and I was scared of him, but because it his pleasure was my pleasure. I've never seen him so excited as when he took me to my first game in Tuscaloosa. He acted as host to a visitor in his home. He pointed out so many things, I couldn't look fast enough. He led me in cheers. You would have thought "The Million Dollar Band" was just playing for us. I had a wonderful time seeing what he loves.

Eric has had to learn about a few things as well. I love old movies, especially musicals. Yes, the kind where the actors break out in song for no apparent reason. I not only like to watch them in movies but in the theatre too. I like symphonies, ballets, opera, and plays. For a while, when I was able to go events like these, I had to go with my sisters. A few years ago, Eric surprised me with tickets to a musical in Memphis for a Christmas present. We attended in January and made a night of it. We had such a good time. I turned to him frequently as the players danced and sang to see if he was asleep or lowering his head in shame, but he didn't. He was laughing at all the right parts along with the rest of the crowd. On the ride home, he admited that it wasn't that bad. He even keeps taking me back.

You may think it is funny that my sporty, manly man attends musicals and plays, but I find it makes him even more of a man. He probably wouldn't go to them without me. He goes because I love it and he wants to love me by sharing them with me. He knows that I probably wouldn't watch every Alabama game or keep up with scores if he didn't care about them. I care because he cares.

On day 14 of The Love Dare, the authors speak about making the decision to take delight in our spouses.
In ourselves, after the new feeling wears off, we can become irritated with the tendencies of our mates. Alabama football could drive me crazy. Musical theatre does drive many people crazy. We could chose to not understand and refuse to take part. But because I love Eric and he loves me, we chose to take the time to look at something new and different. Even if we don't enjoy the activity as much as something we would have chosen, we enjoy being together and loving on each other. We don't always make the unselfish choice, but in these things we have and we are better for it.

So if you find yourself feeling alienated from your mate, take a close look and see who did the alienating. Was it just as much your fault as their's as you lost interest in them and the unique person they are? The author writes:

"Enjoy your spouse. Take her hand and seek her companionship. Desire his conversation. Remember why you fell in love with her personality. Accept this person---quirks and all---and welcome him or her back into your heart."

I love Eric Paul Lancaster and I want our days to be filled with unselfishness and delight in one another. So I still watch football. I hope someday that when the quarterback fakes the other team that he doesn't fake me also. Eric and I won't ever have all the same interests, but we make a killer team at Trivial Pursuit. Together we are a great team. And hopefully our children will see that it wasn't all about Eric or Anna, but that in some ways we mirrored God's unselfish love in our lives.