Complimentary Story
Editor, Wisconsin Christian News:November/December 2024
My intent is for this to be a positive message to women and to offer them a choice. Specifically, the women the mainstream media ignores. Women, that choose Life. Ironically, the idea led me to visit a gravesite. I barely knew the parents, and as the marker only has one date, obviously never knew the child. So why that grave? It was the first of many I would dig over the years.
My dad was the sexton, and questioned why the excavator wanted his full price for a much smaller grave. At 15, when dad offered me less than half, I quickly loaded a shovel and pick, pushing our wheelbarrow across the road. I had dug holes on our farm; this time I would get paid — $100 was a lot back then.
At the time, I wasn’t thinking about how the parents had chosen life, even a brief one. Not far away is a similar grave. It has two dates but they are not far apart. As then being sexton, I had to deal with the young mother. She had chosen life, even though it was a brief struggle for her child. There is another marker, placed long before I was born. The elderly man who discussed his plans for his future burial nearby, explained she was his mother. Whether she died during or shortly after his birth, I didn’t ask. She chose life — giving him life ended hers.
This maybe isn’t sounding very positive. Yet, the positive point is the choice of these women for life, even in tragic circumstances. The mainstream media would have us believe that the vast majority of women are pro-abortion. “Pro-choice,” according to their twisted mental gymnastics, but “choice” implies at least two options. Try to avoid it as they may, the opposite of the choice for life is for the unborn’s death.
I don’t know if that gentleman’s mother knew that her life was in peril.
Recently, I had a conversation with a young lady, obviously pregnant and expecting a baby soon. I wished her the best of outcomes and was about to walk away. Then a thought occurred, and I thanked her for choosing life.
I’ve since met her husband and toddler. I thanked her again. During that conversation, we both agreed that there are probably many women like her — choosing life, not death.
A silent majority — if only they would speak up. The hands that rock the cradle could again rule the world. Have you thanked a mother for making the choice for life? It is as simple as thanking veterans for their service. See a pregnant woman or mother and child, and just say, “Thank you for choosing life for your child.” There’s sacrifice in military service; these women have chosen as so many before, a lifetime commitment. Could such simple “Thank you” become a pro-life movement? I don't know. I will carry it on.
There is another marker in that cemetery, for my mom and dad. I am ashamed to say, I never told her, “Thank you, mom, for choosing life for me.”
-William Behringer, Winneconne, Wis.
