Most of you who read my blog know that I have several times talked about the misinterpretation of the passage from Christ in which he warns that we will be judged by the standard by which we judge others. Most people incorrectly apply this passage to mean that nobody should ever correct their errant behavior, that nobody has the right to stop them. I've talked about the fact that were this logic to be taken to its logical conclusion, it would mean we could have no laws and no justice for we could never be sure of what is right and what is wrong. Judging behavior isn't just a right of a moral person and society, but their duty and obligation.
It is the judging of hearts that is the province of God, for only God knows the quality of the soul and the true motivations for a person's behavior. This is why the pro-abortion/pro-birth control movement is so contrary to Christianity. The society that deems that it has the right to judge who is worthy of having children - a gift from God - and who isn't, is a society that has put itself in the position of being God. I hear this statement from well-meaning Christians right alongside their secular counter parts, "That person doesn't deserve to have children!" This statement is usually spoken about the poor, the drug or alcohol addicted, the physically abusive, the uneducated, or people whose beliefs contradict the speaker's. The statement is correct. Those people don't deserve the children they've received. Here's a hint, though: nobody DESERVES children. They are a grace, a gift received from God by the person blessed enough to have them. None of us deserves such a grace, none of us deserves that incredible gift. If we put ourselves in the seat of God's judgment chair and begin to decide who has the "right" to have children and who doesn't, we interfere with God's designs and His work of saving souls.
Children are always an answer to prayers of the past, present, and future both of the parents who conceive them and of the world around them. The parents chosen are not chosen by accident. God looks at their hearts and at the path of life they are on, and sends them a child because HE knows better than we do what it will take to reach them and to direct them back onto a path of life. He knows how wounded and broken they are, and the kind of courage it will take for them to correct their lives and find the healing they need so that someday they will stop being harmful to themselves and others. He knows this, because He knows them better than they know themselves. We can only observe where they have been and where they are now. He can see where they will go, and what it will take to set them on a better path. When we interfere with His plans for them, when we don't trust God's mercy and wisdom, we interfere with His ability to bring about a better world.
I know this because I was born to broken parents who weren't fit to raise me. I was abandoned, abused, and led astray from right paths because of their brokenness. God knew where I had been and what was possible within me. He knew that my early sexual encounters were really cries for someone to love me. He knew what it would take to reach me, to set me on a better path and bring me to the point where I was ready to receive healing and help. He sent me my son. For the sake of my son, I had the courage to look more closely at my life and to improve it. For the sake of my son, I became determined not to accept being treated like garbage by other people. For the sake of my son, I eventually wound my way into God's embrace and learned to walk in the paths that would lead to healing and to wholeness.
It worked the same way for my mother, as well. It was the pain she saw her children undergo because of her poor choices in life that motivated her to make changes. She's still making them, becoming a better woman and a better person as each day passes. She didn't deserve children, but God knew they were the way to reach a heart that was otherwise destined to hell. God's vision is so much clearer than our own. Who are we to sit in judgment on others, saying who deserves children and who doesn't? It isn't our right. It isn't our duty, and the world suffers when we try.
It is the judging of hearts that is the province of God, for only God knows the quality of the soul and the true motivations for a person's behavior. This is why the pro-abortion/pro-birth control movement is so contrary to Christianity. The society that deems that it has the right to judge who is worthy of having children - a gift from God - and who isn't, is a society that has put itself in the position of being God. I hear this statement from well-meaning Christians right alongside their secular counter parts, "That person doesn't deserve to have children!" This statement is usually spoken about the poor, the drug or alcohol addicted, the physically abusive, the uneducated, or people whose beliefs contradict the speaker's. The statement is correct. Those people don't deserve the children they've received. Here's a hint, though: nobody DESERVES children. They are a grace, a gift received from God by the person blessed enough to have them. None of us deserves such a grace, none of us deserves that incredible gift. If we put ourselves in the seat of God's judgment chair and begin to decide who has the "right" to have children and who doesn't, we interfere with God's designs and His work of saving souls.
Children are always an answer to prayers of the past, present, and future both of the parents who conceive them and of the world around them. The parents chosen are not chosen by accident. God looks at their hearts and at the path of life they are on, and sends them a child because HE knows better than we do what it will take to reach them and to direct them back onto a path of life. He knows how wounded and broken they are, and the kind of courage it will take for them to correct their lives and find the healing they need so that someday they will stop being harmful to themselves and others. He knows this, because He knows them better than they know themselves. We can only observe where they have been and where they are now. He can see where they will go, and what it will take to set them on a better path. When we interfere with His plans for them, when we don't trust God's mercy and wisdom, we interfere with His ability to bring about a better world.
I know this because I was born to broken parents who weren't fit to raise me. I was abandoned, abused, and led astray from right paths because of their brokenness. God knew where I had been and what was possible within me. He knew that my early sexual encounters were really cries for someone to love me. He knew what it would take to reach me, to set me on a better path and bring me to the point where I was ready to receive healing and help. He sent me my son. For the sake of my son, I had the courage to look more closely at my life and to improve it. For the sake of my son, I became determined not to accept being treated like garbage by other people. For the sake of my son, I eventually wound my way into God's embrace and learned to walk in the paths that would lead to healing and to wholeness.
It worked the same way for my mother, as well. It was the pain she saw her children undergo because of her poor choices in life that motivated her to make changes. She's still making them, becoming a better woman and a better person as each day passes. She didn't deserve children, but God knew they were the way to reach a heart that was otherwise destined to hell. God's vision is so much clearer than our own. Who are we to sit in judgment on others, saying who deserves children and who doesn't? It isn't our right. It isn't our duty, and the world suffers when we try.
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