By Beth Meverden
I’ve always been a kid person, even as a kid! At five-years-old, I longed to be a mama. I played with my dolls at home and played with my stuffed animals like they were dolls. I even sang them lullabies at night. As I grew, I started volunteering at the nursery at church and never stopped helping in children’s classes. I loved holding babies, babysitting, and spending time with my younger cousins.
When I was a young woman, before my husband and I were married, a few doctors told me there was a high chance I wouldn’t have children because I had unconfirmed endometriosis. I endured incredible pain during my cycle, and the doctors were convinced it meant I was barren. I was devastated. Checking for endometriosis required surgery at that time, and I chose to have hope instead of surgery.
Pre-birth training
I poured myself into my job as a youth minister and spent time teaching my students about life before birth. I showed them videos of ultrasounds and taught them the importance of life beginning at creation. Every year or so, my students could expect a Pre-Birth Stations Night where they held replicas of preborn babies at each stage in the womb. They would spend time reading stories of abortion survivors (babies and mamas). They would also do some personal study on a passage of scripture that would bolster their faith in God and help them marvel at His creation of preborn babies. They would read these scriptures (and more):
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know. My bones are not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth. — Psalm 139:13-16
The word of the Lord came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
— Jeremiah 1:4-5
I went out of my way to be with little ones, spending time with friends’ newborns and helping them with babysitting when I could. I could never shake the desire I had to raise children.
To read the remainder of this article, visit clmagazine.org/topic/human-dignity/god-comforts-us-so-we-can-comfort-others.
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