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."