first things first...

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived, this is to have succeeded." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

For me, this first day of this freshly arrived July, like each first of each month over the past four years, begins with a prayer for the children who are at critical risk to abortion. Right now. Those whose lives hang in the balance at this very moment.

I began this prayer after the birth of my daughter, as a way of honoring the Lord who blessed me with her tiny, miraculous life to shepherd but for a brief time. And through whom, all things are possible, no heart is unreachable, and no miracle is unattainable.

I believe there is no limit to what God can achieve, and that prayer is the most powerful mechanism for manifesting His divinity in the lives and world around us. And in our own hearts, always in need of refinement and humility, the desire to view each other through Christ's eyes.

Tonight I kneel and pray for each pregnant mother who today faces this question and is considering the abortion 'option' in her soul. I pray that God will equip her with the courage, moral conviction, raw love, and unyielding support she needs to be able to place the preciousness of the innocent life growing within her ahead of the personal obstacles that threaten to convince her to stop her BABY'S beating heart. I pray for changed hearts and saved lives.

Finally, I pray for those precious babies already lost. The Lord knows each of them by name.

I lift my voice in hope that my life, my words, my heart may intercede on behalf of the meekest among us whose lives hang in the balance. I pray for changed hearts and saved lives. I pray for the mothers. I pray for the babies. I pray for life and against death. I pray for miracles. And I believe in a God who answers our prayers.

So I pray.

Join me.