Fall Boundary Waters Camping

A Painful Debate and a Word About Compassion

Following is a debate that a FB friend started (and a copy of my comment). It has so far gotten 80 comments, and caused some people to "unfriend" others. How sad. The comments ran anything from, "Who do you think you are?" to, "I totally agree" and anything in between. I decided to post the "debate" question and my comment here. I'm not looking to start a debate of my own, and I certainly don't want anyone "un-blog-friending" anyone. I just decided I had something to say. I know that many people have personal experience with this or (as I am) are very close to someone who does. I do not want to make light of that in any way. That pain is HUGE. I wish that we who are Christians would learn compassion. I wish I had learned it before it was too late for my friend. Actually, I hope and pray that it's not too late. I hope that she can find healing and be at peace one day. I hope that anyone who reads this needing the lesson I learned can learn it from my mistake. And for anyone who is in the kind of pain I describe here, I have learned my lesson. I would be happy to talk and pray with you.

The debate:
So just for debates sake, lets say you are pro-choice. You believe women have the right to choose what happens to their bodies. What happens when another human being becomes involved? You wouldn't allow a woman to choose to kill her CHILD. So now lets just say that the "fetus" you are carrying happens to be a female, where is her right to choose?

My comment:
In essence, I agree with the fact that abortion is a horrible thing and shouldn't ever happen. However, I think the one thing missing in this debate is compassion for those who've felt compelled to make that choice, and for those who love and sympathize with them. I know this from experience. I used to think only of sticking up for what was "right" - the problem is that in doing so I hurt a woman who carried secret pain bigger than anything you can likely imagine unless you've been there. She'd heard so many comments like mine that she felt hopelessly worthless and that God couldn't possibly forgive her. What I said was like stabbing a knife in her already broken heart. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. She just lashed out at me about how women should have a choice, and how could I be so unfair as to say that when a woman is raped she should not have an abortion.
I didn't find out until later that I'd added to her immense pain.
I could have said the same thing, but with compassion and understanding, adding that we have a God who is full of compassion and love, and forgives us for Jesus' sake. Instead I gave the Enemy the opportunity to attack her further, and imbed the lie deeper that she was nothing, worth nothing...
She later tried to commint suicide and is as of yet steeped in alcaholism and depression, lied to all the time that she's worthless and nobody could ever love her.
Don't forget the pain that these women suffer every day of their lives. Tell the truth, but with compassion. Who really cares if people decide you're morally right, the question is are you sharing the Love of the Savior with them? Are they being healed and set free? Do you truly love others like you love yourself?
How I wish I could take those callous words back, and instead share the miracle of hope and healing through Jesus with her...
Thanks for starting this very worthwhile discussion! :) Blessings!

Feeding Whiskey Jacks

Dan took Molly and Sam on a camping trip into the Boundary Waters for the weekend on October 1st through the 3rd. They had a great time. No trip into the BWCA is complete without feeding the Whiskey Jacks (aka grey jays). The "little girls" and I stayed home this trip and had a blast doing our own thing. I took them to town for a day, complete with lunch at Sven-n-Ole's and ice cream at Sydney's. We snuggled in my bed watching movies, and reading stories. It really was a blast for all of us! It was also great to be back together again and share our stories with each other when the other half of our family got home. Family...what a word that is...

OK, the main point of this post was to share the great video Molly got of a whiskey jack eating out of her hand, but I never can seem to get the video's to upload. Grrr...

Garden (or maybe I should say post garden) Update

Hi ladies! I'm finally getting around to a garden update. It's been a while partly because of business and partly because there hasn't been a whole lot happening in my garden for a while. We've had a few frosty nights, one pretty hard. Funny how some things really take a lickin' and keep on...tickin'? Well, growing, any way. I've been freezing swiss chard and picking beets, beet greens and spinach yet. That's it, I guess. We'd planted a green called broccoli raab earlier in the year, but we really didn't like it so it just grew while being ignored. It grew very well, and really I should have taken a picture of what it looks like now. It's quite tall, with beautiful yellow flowers that start out looking almost exactly like a tiny broccoli head, and it's completely unaffected by the cold weather. I've been cutting it and putting it in a vase.


This is the only squash I was able to grow this year. It made up for being an only child by growing huge!


Yesterday I took a peek into the bag of tomatoes and was surprised to see there was this whole bowl full that had ripened! They smell wonderful! Now I just have to decide what to make with them... :)


That one squash I grew made over 16 cups of squash. After using a big chunk for dinner and more for squash soup, I steamed and mashed about 13 cups to use like pumpkin. I'm sure it will make some great muffins.

I think that's going to be about it for this season as far as gardening goes... Except for seed catalogs and dreams of next spring!