Two Tutors

"We are going through insist and give up all our lives. Sometimes we choose to insist on and sometimes we choose to give up. There are something worth remembering indeed, but there are also something we need to give up. Both insisting and giving up are kind of attitude,  to give up is courage and so is insisting. Most of the time we think to insist is better, but sometimes when we give up something, we receive more. We don't have a standard to measure which is better, it depends on what you think. Just do the right things that you think are right, not to be regret because life never turn back.  We should also learn to be satisfied, life doesn't always gives you what you want."   
 
This morning my 13-year-old Chinese student and I went back and forth between correcting her English and discussing the insightful and heart-revealing ideas she had expressed.  No assignment from school or from me prompted her to write on this topic.  She was thinking about these things, and so she wrote her ideas to practice her English for her lesson with me. 

Her writing lent itself to discussing whether there are any standards to measure right and wrong, any standards that would lead us to take a stand to always insist on something and to never give up on it.  I suggested that there are such standards, that we know innately, whether we are taught by society and our parents or not, such standards as telling the truth instead of lying, of being honest and not cheating on schoolwork as opposed to using someone else's work.  She seemed a little uncomfortable.  A guilty conscience perhaps?  Picking up on that, I introduced a new word to her: "conscience." 

I suggested that she come up with just ten basic rules to guide right and wrong behavior for the students at her school. She was a little overwhelmed with that idea, so I told her that ten basic rules of life have already been given by the one God who created the world and mankind.
       "Have you ever heard of The Ten Commandments?"
       "No."  
So I  told her the Story of the giving of The Ten Commandments and some of the history of Israel that led up to it.

In a review and homework email, I have challenged her to think about how people deal with the feelings of a guilty conscience, ineffective ways and effective ways.  I also explained that the purpose of the law was to show us our inability to keep it, and how Jesus' life and death can help free us from a guilty conscience and the consequences of our genuine guilt in breaking God's laws.  For homework, she will read the scriptural account of the story I told her.  She will read the 10 Commandments themselves and interact with my question and comment: "Have you ever broken any of these laws? I know I have!" 

Galatians 3:24 "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith."

Two tutors, I and the Law are working together, Lord willing, to bring this young one to Christ, that she may be justified by faith. 

Trumpeting Joy!

"I don't believe you are the kind of person who would help kill someone, just because you are bigger and more powerful, just because the little person lives in a different room from you, vulnerable and trapped in the womb as opposed to outside the womb, just because you are afraid of how your life might change when that tiny little helpless person grows bigger and then comes into the 'room' where you live.  Reality is that when this little person comes into 'your room' he or she can bring you the greatest joy you have ever known! Or you can gift someone else with their greatest joy!  God says children are a gift from him to bring happiness!  (Psalm 127:3-5).  In contrast, a lie out there says they are a plague or something that will mess up our lives.  People call killing them 'choice,' 'freedom,' and 'reproductive health options,' to hide the awfulness of what they do and to cover up their not just messing up, but destroying, these little lives.  Your baby is already an absolutely amazing miracle, an amazing creation with marvelous biological engineering taking place in its mind and body, with a future and a purpose already planned for him or her by Almighty God (Psalm 139:16).

I'm praying for you, believing that you will make the right decision, not sinning against God, this child, yourself, and your conscience...no matter how hard it is.  When you make the right decision, you will feel true freedom and peace.

Hoping to hear from you.

Your friend at Choices,
Rhonda Wilkinson"

Just as the daffodils in my yard seem to trumpet and celebrate new life in the spring, so my heart was trumpeting JOY yesterday over a life rescued!  The distraught teenage mom to whom I directed the above email to came to talk to someone about her anguish over her unwanted pregnancy.  After we spoke, she decided to keep the baby and scheduled an ultrasound.  She came for the first ultrasound at 6 weeks along. We encouraged her to return for another. She made the second ultrasound appointment while her boyfriend, not wanting her to keep the baby, walked out of the office. Last I had heard, she hadn't kept that second ultrasound appointment. I feared that she perhaps had buckled under her fears and her boyfriends' pressure.  I attempted email contact after the first ultrasound, after the missed one, and then again several months later. Perhaps she never even read the emails, but I, my co-workers, and our prayer supporters prayed that she would change her mind. Just yesterday I learned that she did come back and another client advocate has been leading her through the decision-making lessons on choosing to place a baby for adoption. She chose life for her baby!  Thanking God that I and you, through your prayers, could be a part of the rescue team!