The Simple Choice

Dr. Mike Murphy

I find myself today, anxious to watch play out all the plans the Lord has for you and me. A six pound, twelve ounce future bundle of joy, that in five months you will name Charlotte. I will be a good baby, by everything people will tell you. One that smiles more than cries, and one who will delight you in sleeping through most nights. As I turn seven months old, I will develop a high fever that will bring the greatest of fears to you. Although the doctor will not be overly concerned, as a new mother, it will be your constant worry. Finding you rocking me in your arms all night, as you hold me close. And with each rock, a future smile will come to your face as you remember each song you sang to me that night. As I turn two, my curiosity will become as big as my attempt to take each step. ”Why”, will soon become my favorite word, and you will hear me say it so often, you will hear it in your sleep. But with each “why”, you will watch my mind grow, and you will soon discover just how bright your little girl is. As I start school, it will feel like my friends are growing faster than my questions were once coming. I will be a popular girl, who others are attracted to by her smile. Who is also as polite and courteous, as I will be smart. A child who each teacher will want as I move to the next grade, and who each day will make you proud, as you see the grades marked on my tests. As childhood ends, and the teen years begin, you will watch as my mind will often shift from grades to boys. You will find me far more consumed with the outfits I want to wear, than whether or not my homework is done. And you will often wonder if I will ever stop asking you about what makeup I can wear. As I begin to drive, you will feel the disappoint that peer-pressure can often bring to a young girl. One night you will get that dreaded call, with me telling you how sorry I am, but that I have been drinking and just cannot drive home. As your anger will subside, you will sit down to talk to me, and explain so well to me, the worries you have for me. And although through the tears we will hug, I will still find myself grounded for the next two months. As graduation comes, I will have a scholarship soon waiting for me, as you hear me say I will have a doctor’s office in my distant future. But as college comes, so will the love of a young man. A young man, who you know will distract me, but your heart tells you he will always be good to me, and each day will cherish me. A young man, who will have the greatest impact on my life. A young man who is destined to be in the ministry, and who will minister to me early on, as he will lead me to Christ. A young man, who will leave me hearing wedding bells before I can hear the bells of college graduation. As my marriage life starts, you will watch me devote myself to the ministry as much as you also see that devotion from him. With the small church he will minister at, you will see me giving my all. Leading the youth, even trying to lead the choir as I occasionally sing a note off key. But each day, you will watch as my love for him grows almost as much as you will see my love grow for the Lord. As the days go by, you will soon see my becoming a mother, too. A little girl on the way, that will soon remind you so much of me. And you will smile as you see me becoming a new mother, with the same worries and concerns that you one day had, not so long ago. So many things to be proud of, waiting in the distance for both of us. So many memories that will forever be entwined in the thoughts of both of our minds. A lifetime of smiles, of tears, of concerns, of hopes, and of dreams, that we will see play out in the most amazing of ways. So many plans the Lord has for both of us, so much purpose He has waiting ahead of us. But as I feel the first twitch of pain, I realize, all of His perfect plans, are the farthest thing from what you now have planned. Plans that see me more as a burden and a hardship, than they leave me as a part of your greatest hopes and dreams. With what you call “a simple choice”. I see you pushing aside all the plans the Lord has put in place for us, all the hopes and dreams He lovingly looked to place in your arms as I was born. I watch those plans quickly begin to fade, and as I feel the pressure and pain building on my small body, I realize that the hope He offered is quickly being sucked from your body, as parts of me are being torn away. In this world today, it is impossible for us to not feel for any young woman who finds themselves unexpectedly pregnant. Feeling the weight of everything on them, as if their hopes and dreams are crashing down around them. And as they feel this build, they hear this world tell them how easy it is to just get rid of all this pressure. A clean break, by simply choosing to abort the child, and start new again. Convincing them that they can live their own dream, without the child being a part of their plans. But I would just ask any young woman facing this choice, to take a single moment of their time, and read one simple verse. “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”, Jeremiah 29:11. As you read these words, I pray you will take each one to heart. And as you read these words, I pray that a rash decision will be replaced in your heart with a lifetime of hope. A hope that looks past the hardship that surrounds you today, to give you a glimpse of the dreams and plans He has in place for you tomorrow. A hope that does not leave you looking back with a heart full of regret, but looking forward with a heart filled with joy. A hope that will soon fill your mind each time you see the smile on your child’s face. Today, I plead with you, I pray for you, that the lifetime joy of His plans will outweigh the pressure you now feel from your sudden and rushed plans. And that today, you will make His plans your simple choice.