7 Ways to Celebrate Life Everyday

Maybe you realized it, or maybe you didn't, but today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and Wednesday will be the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. I was thinking about this a few years ago, when the thought hit me as to one way in which it did affect me growing up.

When I started school, they had built some extra, newer elementary schools in our district to handle all of the children we had. The school was built the year I was born in the last 1960s. By the time I was entering 5th grade, my elementary school had to be shut down due to lack of students. The entering Kindergarten class simply wasn't born in the same numbers as previous years in 1973, or 1974, or most years after that. It could be from other circumstances beyond Roe v. Wade, of course, or added to Roe v. Wade, but the fact is that by 1980, our elementary school closed it's doors due to a sharp decline in enrollment.

I also know that, if I were conceived a few years later than I was, I'd probably not be writing this. I'd have been a prime candidtate for an abortion--I wasn't planned, and my birth mother wasn't married. Maybe she would have chosen life, or maybe not.

As with diet and exercise, sometimes I think we try to think only in terms of the big stuff when it comes to combating the sometimes negative attitudes we see in others about the sanctity of human life, and the laws that legalize the devaluing of life. We think big, like changing laws. However, we are most pro-life when we are pro-life in the little, day to day things...Likewise, we can say we are pro life but act very differently in the everyday (maybe without realizing it), sending conflicting messages to a watching world looking for answers to life's questions.

I was pondering the different ways in which I can show, in my everyday life, that each life I come across has value. I will admit that some of these are convicting to my heart (especially that first one!). However, we really show who we are, not in what we do on special occasions, or on Sunday in church, but in how we live out the nitty gritty of life.

I am sure there are more, but these are the top seven pro life things I want to do, every day, this year, to live out my belief that every life has value, and everyone is made in the image of their Creator God, from conception until the time they set foot into eternity.

Top Seven Everyday Pro Life Things you can do to celebrate life everyday:

1. Treat EVERYONE with respect and dignity as people made in the image of God, from the grandma who is driving 30 MPH in a 55 MPH zone while you're running late for an appointment, to the baby or toddler making a fuss at the store.

2. Teach a child something new, something which celebrates the joy of being alive in little ways, whether it is how to bake a yummy loaf of bread, to how to blow dandelion fuzzies everywhere, or make angels in the snow. Stop and smell the proverbial roses every day with a child.

3. Pray for the single mothers you know, who have a tough job ahead of them, many not by their choice, and many who were courageous enough to choose life in a difficult situation.

4. Ask the Lord to show you one thing you can do to be a blessing to someone who is weary of life and needs encouragement, and act on it. You don't have to do something huge or grande to make someone around you smile. A card, a phone call, a plate of cookies, or a basket of apples off your tree...or anything else the Lord shows you to do.

5. Thank God for the life He has brought into your family, your children, your spouse, your extended family, and YOU.

6. Make sure to tell each of your children how much you love them, each and every day, preferably with a hug that lasts until they let go.

7. Tell those you meet of the hope that is in you: Jesus, the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Ask God to give you opportunities to share of the eternal life you have through our Lord, and spread the word, whether in conversation, emails, a blog, or sharing a tract if you're feeling shy. Sow good seed wherever you go.