The following three stories are fiction but they tell the truth:The little boy sat in the oversized chair – his feet swinging far from the floor as he clutched a worn, green blankie.
“I just want my dad all the time. I want him to live with me,” he said, staring at the floor.
The grown-up with the notepad wrote something before she replied, “Well, we’re here to fix that.”
He looked up with hope in his eyes. “You can fix things so my dad comes home?”
“No,” answered the grown-up. “We’ll fix you so you stop needing him. Kids can grow up without their dads and that’s okay.”
He slumped back in his chair. “It’s not okay with me. I don’t think I’m like those other kids. I want my dad.”
“Life isn’t about getting what we want. We’ll make sure you get what you need, though.” She made another note in the pad.
“Good, because I need my dad,” he crossed his little arms over his chest.
She shook her head. “No, you just think you need your dad. You can be fine growing up without him.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be that kind of fine,” he said. Then he stopped listening to the grown-up.
The grown-up took her clipboard to the next room. A teenager sat with her head on her knees in the corner chipping black polish from her nails.
“Can you tell me why you did it?” the grownup asked as she sat in the swivel chair and checked her watch.
The girl shrugged and swept a lock of pink hair into her face.
“It says here that some of your friends spread lies about you around school.”
“They weren’t my friends and it wasn’t all lies.”
“Did the things they said hurt you?” she asked, making a note.
“What do you think?” the girl snapped.
“I think we can only be hurt if we allow ourselves to be hurt,” she said, flipping to a blank page of her notepad.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” the girl replied, looking at the grownup for the first time.
“Other people’s opinions only matter if we let them matter,” she added with a confident nod.
“Whatever you do, lady, please don’t put me on the drugs you’re taking,” the girl answered, suddenly feeling less stupid than she had before but also less hopeful, if that was possible.
The grown-up entered the last room where another grown woman sat staring out of the window.
“It looks as though you’re still feeling inappropriate sadness,” she said, holding out a box of tissues.
“I’ve tried everything you people are telling me to try but I still regret what I did to my baby.”
“We’ve talked about that word.”
“I’m sorry, but in my mind, it was a baby.”
The grown up sighed and tapped her clipboard. “Maybe we need to try a new medication.”
“How is medication going to change what I’ve done?”
“All you’ve done is exercise your choice. You chose to make your needs a priority over some archaic idea of womanhood. That shouldn’t be mourned, it should be celebrated.”
“Then why don’t I feel like celebrating?”
“We’ll try a new medication.
I believe in forgiveness, redemption, God working His will even through our failures and imperfection, but I don’t believe that if you tell a lie enough times it makes it true.
Children need mothers and fathers. Words have power to destroy. Abortion hurts everyone it touches.
These are scary times when saying such things aloud seems dangerous, risky, revolutionary.
We need to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth all the time. Who knew that would be the most important weapon in the end – and the first one abandoned on the field at the advance of the enemy.
“ Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel—let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” Isaiah 5:18-21
Join the resistance. Tell the truth.
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What a powerful post, Lori. You’re right, the truth doesn’t change just because someone tries to redefine it.
Shared your post on Facebook & Twittter
Easy to forget these days!
Changing the name doesn’t change the fact. Euphemisms can be total lies. Satan delights at “foddering” our language – making black seem white and white, black. We need to take back the original meanings of words and speak the truth, gently, but without compromise. Thank you for saying this so very well!
Words matter.
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Why are we so willing to accept the lies we’re being told when the truth is so accessible? “I am the WAY, THE TRUTH, and the LIFE.” Said so simply, meaning so much. I know the parables you just told are really happening today. Are we raising a generation of people who don’t want the truth? Or have we allowed them to avoid hearing THE TRUTH for so long, they’ve lost the WAY? My heart hurts for those who are deceived by the lies they hear everyday. And I recognize the father of all lies as he goes about hurting another generation of souls. Let’s use prayer as our “first resort”, not our last. Another good blog, girl. MOMMA
I like that, Mom.
Excellent and TRUE, my friend.
You know it!
Excellent, Lori! If ever there was an appropriate time for Isaiah’s warning, it is today… Too bad we can’t brand that on the brains of those who consider themselves our nation’s leaders! Thanks for the timely reminder!
I needed the reminder myself!
You say “Children need mothers and fathers. Words have power to destroy. Abortion hurts everyone it touches.” Three very simplistic sentences that are just a tad deceptive as written. All children have a mother and a father; what children need is love as well as nurture. The power of words to destroy is small compared to fire, tornadoes, guns and war. Abortion, like all medical procedures, has the potential to hurt as well as heal.