The Stories behind the Songs of Surrender...

 




Here are the stories behind the songs-they are as powerful as the songs them selves-check'em out... and you can always go here ( https://rebeccamartinmusic.com/music ) to listen and see the videos too ( https://rebeccamartinmusic.com/video ) ENJOY :)  -tm


 

BURNED BUT BEAUTIFUL Rebecca Martin

You wrap yourself around me when the danger comes too near

You envelope me in your safety

Though the flames are to be feared

Your presence ever marks me

Though the scars do their part to darken me

You are the one who saves me, unseen but always there

 

Singed but saved         Safe but broken       Burned but beautiful

 

Sitting in your safety, You’re standing by my side

Stroking me gently as you push my fears aside

 

Father fully faithful   Forever by my side  

Silently protecting     Your presence will ever abide.

 

 

Bright light illuminates You    You’re completely surrounding me

Your love incomprehensible   Protecting and providing for me

My hand You cover,  my heart You hold

My forever is always in Your control.

 

 When I was 3 years old my family & I went to spend time on Lake Erie. After a day on the lake, we returned to the vacation home of my aunt’s boyfriend.  All the other children were playing outside, but since I was so small my parents took me inside with them to change out of our bathing suits.  The story I’m told is that both my parents knew when they walked in that something was wrong because they could smell gas in the air. The man who owned the property, who was standing by the stove reached for a match to strike, evidently to try & light the oven. In that moment that the match hit the box & the spark was lit, all the gas from the leak that had filled the air lit up as well.  The explosion was instantaneous & loud enough to bring the neighbors over in the following moments of confusion.

            From what I understand, there was so much gas in the air that the whole room exploded. A shelf that was above my head fell & landed on my head and I still bear the small bald spot where it landed.  In shock we walked outside & the neighbors who had come out to investigate called the police.  I’ve been told that my mother asked my dad if we would be ok & he assured her everything was fine even thought my sister has told me she will never forget the smell of our burnt skin & hair.   You see we were in shock at the point & weren’t really feeling the effects of pain quite yet even though everyone who looked at us knew the situation was bad!         

Two ambulances showed up and they took my mom & dad in one ambulance, with myself & my aunt’s boyfriend in the other.  I’m sure they did that because my dad could communicate with my mom who is deaf, but as a child, that was just the beginning of the trauma that the next 7 weeks would hold for a little girl who felt abandoned & alone with no parents to protect or comfort her.

            They took us to the Toledo hospital and because it was 3 hours away from our home, my 2 grandmothers could only come & visit on the weekends since they both had jobs. My parents shared a hospital room on another floor and said they were only allowed to see me a few times during the stay. When they did see me, I begged to be held by them, but because of the pain from the burns over most of their bodies, my dad could barely hold me for a few minutes on his lap before the pain became unbearable. 

            All of this I understand intellectually as an adult. I know the details and the reasons for all of this. But as an adult, I have no conscious memories of the explosion or time in the hospital. This bothered me immensely & the older I got, the more I asked God to show me what happened. I believed that the memories were stored somewhere inside my subconscious brain and that God could bring them back to conscious thought again if he chose to.  You see, I bore the physical scars that I had to look at every day on my arms, legs & face, yet had no memory of how I got them besides one image that was burned in my head. It was of the front of the house where the accident happened. I pictured a long one story house and as a young adult, we went back once to look at the house and the image in my head matched the reality of what the outside looked like so I knew that for some reason my mind had retained that one memory of the day. 

             Around the time I turned 40 I went to a worship conference and during a time of music my eyes were closed because I have found that is how I can concentrate the best.  I saw a series of pictures in my head that disturbed me greatly.  First I saw a hospital room with a little girl all by herself. Next a water bath where bandages from burns are removed & the girl was alone in it.  I knew the girl was me & that I was all alone through the worst experience of my childhood.  I wept and grieved for the following weeks as I struggled to understand why God showed me this. Was it simply to reinforce how alone I had been- unseen & unknown through my vulnerabilities as a small child? 

            But about a month later I was at a different conference with my husband for pastors & spouses and it had been a few days of incredible worship & ministering to my soul as well as simply resting each afternoon.  We were singing together & again my eyes were closed.  The song that was playing in the back ground was Good, Good Father.  Suddenly I flashed through a series of images that were almost identical to the series of images I wept over a few weeks earlier at the worship seminar… with a slight change to each. 

This time the images flashed quickly & went from a small girl being held on the  lap of God the Father in the hospital room,  then standing beside the tank of water holding the hand of the girl in the water, then back to the hospital room.  The girl is sleeping in a darkened room & God the father is sitting in a chair pulled up to the side of the bed, leaning forward as a concerned parent does, stroking her forehead. Those images moved quickly & I was touched by them & given time to think about them. 

During the next song, the images that came were of Jesus completely enveloping me a second before the explosion- as if falling on me (in a sense) to save me & rolling me up into a small ball & wrapping his arms & legs around me.  This would explain why I have no recollection of the explosion- I was kept from seeing it as well as much less scarring on my body than the others in the room.

The last image was standing outside the back of the house & looking at an incredibly bright light/presence with the vague outline of arms extended outward & slightly upward.  The light was so brilliant but I knew that he was there to protect us & was over all of it.  I knew it was Jesus standing there with an explosion of light.

This explains why I have always had a vague image of the house (the only memory that I held on to all these years).  I am sure God’s presence was there & whether or not I could see Him in that moment or if I could just sense Him, it burned into my memory…. But all that was left in the memory was the house behind. I’m convinced his holy presence imprinted the moment much deeper in to my conscious than I can understand.

This series of visions was so incredibly healing & in that moment I realized I had been asking the wrong question all these years.  I had thought I wanted to remember what had happened, thinking that would somehow help me.  But what God showed me instead was WHERE HE WAS when it all happened. He answered the deeper question in the soul of a terrified, lonely 3 year old girl who didn’t understand why it happened. And the answer that satisfied & healed my soul was that Jesus the Son was there with me when it happened and God the Father was there with me in the hospital.  I was never alone through any of it even though I thought I was. 

After seeing these visions, the words to this song came to me quickly and easily.  To paraphrase a speaker I once heard.  ‘God can heal in a second what we in our own efforts couldn’t fix in years of effort.’  The words to this song are personal and were given to me specifically because inside my 40 year old body, was still the soul of a 3 year old girl.  Someday I may know why it took that long for God to show me that vision, but I am grateful I have seen it now. It completely changed my perspective of life & situations and I can’t tell you how often in the months and years since then that I thought of those pictures & how much comfort it has given.

 

 

Trust & Obey

Lord I give You control

I trust You with my soul

You’ve never failed me yet

No matter what people have said

                                                          

You’re faithful & true

No matter what I do

Your love for me is real

No matter what I feel

 

 

So I choose to follow You everyday

Making the most of the choices that come my way

Staying firm on the path that goes Your way

I chose to follow, trust & obey

Yes I choose to follow, trust & obey!

 

 

            One day a few years into our journey of adoption, I was praying earnestly for our adopted son.  I could see there were certain key things that were important for him to learn & follow & so I was focusing on those as I prayed.

 I wanted to claim those truths for him & have something that he could say or sing to remind himself of these truths.  I happened to be in the shower when these words began to come to me.  I was so afraid I would forget them so I repeated the 1st part over & over until I could get out & write them down!

This song came about as my prayer that I wanted to sing with him together at night before bed that we could claim together for his life.  It flowed quickly & easily & the tune was one that we sang accapella together at bed with just me beating a rhythm out on my legs. 

 

 

 

 

 

                        LAY IT DOWN                                                     

Little boy, sleeping on the street

Wraps his blanket tight around his head

To keep the demons & fears away

 

He wonders why he’s here, what part he plays

What fault is his? He’s filled with confusion & fear!

 

So he grabs control any chance he gets

And holds on as if to save his own life

His world is spinning out of control!

 

But the tighter he holds on, the looser his grip is

Til it’s all been taken away

And one day he wakes up and it’s all gone

 

And what’s left is a little boy, who scared & thinks he’s all alone

So he builds high walls to protect himself

 

Come weary one,  Come lay it down

You fought so hard to defend (protect) yourself

 

I’ve (God’s) got you now,  I (God) had you then

I’ve (God’s) been there all along, to the very end

 

Give up what you think you can control

So it will stop controlling you

 

You can let it go, release your fears to Him

Lay it all down, Let Him defend you now, And begin again.

 

For almost 7 years I have watched our son (whom we brought in to our home to adopt 3 days after he turned 10) wrap blankets around his head at night when he gets in bed so that only a little bit of his face is showing. He craves the comfort of blankets around his head & the weight of many other blankets over his body in order to fall asleep. I’ve never known anyone else to wrap their head in blankets and it has always stood out to me as such an important piece of the coping skills he has developed due to the hard beginnings he had in life. 

 

            We have spoken very little about his earlier childhood, but the pieces I have collected from his scattered memories and the few documents we have, as well as the evidence lived out every day in his life, paints a vivid picture of a child who learned to do everything he could to protect himself.

 

            Because the brain has been built to adapt to the circumstances we are placed in, those patterns of thought and action that are developed, especially at a young age, act as trenches that are dug deeper & deeper each time a behavior or thought pattern follows the same route.  The more times those thoughts & actions are repeated over many years, the harder it is to retrain your brain to new thoughts & actions. 

 

            Such is the life that we have lived as we have fought with him & for him to develop new & healthier patterns in not only his life, but ours as well. 

           

Yet, in trying to help him, it has become vividly clear that he is not the only one trying to control those around him.  I too have viscously & fiercely tried to grab control as my life has felt more & more out of control. 

 

            The beauty in this song and in our story is that the truth sung about is for both my son & I and everyone else who has carried a burden.  If I can learn to give up control, it will stop controlling me & I in turn, will stop trying to control those around me.  They too, can learn to let God have control & my prayer is that we all would see how weary we are, & that we would lay our burdens down. 

 

            There is a little child inside all of us that carries wounds and fears and our tendency is to build the walls high around us.  But God had us during our darkest, hardest times, he has us now and He always will.  He invites us to lay down those burdens we’re carrying.

 

 

 

 

                   Requiem for a Lost Life

 

A moment ago the world seemed normal

But then they came with news that changed your life.

Now life will never be the same

cause they chose another path that brought you pain.

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As your world silently implodes within you,

Right is wrong and up is down

Or so they try to tell you;  They’ve misled you

You feel your mind crashing & spinning, your stomach is churning

Your heart has stopped;   Your future has died.

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Chorus:          Precious One, I was with you

Long before you knew the hurt

I was standing by your side

 

Precious one, I’m still with you

Holding you steady when your world has fallen apart

 

Precious one, I’ll be with you

Though others have failed you, I’ll never turn away

 

Precious one, I’ll protect you

From the enemies on the outside & the enemy within. 

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There was a time when life seemed normal

But now you’ll share the news that changed your life

And you wonder what others will say about you

What they will think, how they will judge?

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And all of the shame & the pain & the blame are swirling

Around you & you wonder what others will think.

The truth & the lies & the gossip are so overwhelming

Will the pain ever stop? Will you have peace?    6/24/21  7/4/21 Evana  (RLM)

 

Even when life does not feel normal

Hold onto truth:  God is with you

            

A dear friend of mine called me one day with news that was life-changing for her.  It came out of nowhere because she accidently found out before she was supposed to. 

 

            I don’t know exactly how she felt or how her heart was breaking, but I did get a small picture of the grief she experienced.  As I sat thinking, praying & grieving for her one day, the words flowed onto the page as I imagined myself in her situation. I realized that the reason the grief was so deep is because her future (as she had imagined it) had just died, but there would be no closure through a funeral. Instead, she would have to find ways to cope even as she wondered how people would see her. 

 

But the message I felt God speaking into the situation was that she was so precious to Him. She might have felt like she was being abandoned & set aside by someone who once was very special. But God was declaring how precious she was to Him, no matter what she had done & been told.

 

God was there in the past, before she knew the hurt.

He was still with her & would continue to be with her. 

And he would be her protector & provider,

not only from those who appeared to be her enemy,

but the enemy she might become to herself. 

 

Satan tries to get us to believe we are at fault, we are to blame & so we begin to become our own worst enemy.  But God declares we are precious & that He will protect us. 

 

And you just need to hold onto the truth that God is with you through all of it. 

 

 

 REDEEMED   

Torn apart,    Broken down,    Frozen dreams,  failed attempts

Lies believed, fears that freeze, 

Life gone wrong then truth revealed

 

Joined together, built back up

Dreams made new, successes won

Truth believed, trust that frees

Life made right when truth redeemed

 

Lord I believe, that you can see

All that I can be, when I am free

From all the fears of what may be

Til I chose to see all you have for me

 

Lord you have come, you have redeemed               

You have made right all the wrongs against me

I give my life, I give my flaws, I give my all just to be redeemed.

 

 

            Everything felt so scattered as I looked back at what our family had become & as I reflected on other families who were going through struggles as well.  After writing the first verse I tried to write the opposite & claim the truth. 

            Fear has played a major part in my life the past 7 years and I knew that it was the biggest thing that was controlling me. Fears that weren’t even rational or logical. So I began to claim the truth about God that I knew, but couldn’t feel in the hopes that someday I would feel them as well as know them. 

            I knew God could see what I could be, even when I couldn’t. Even when all I could see was what was right in front of me. I would trust him & look to Him to show me the truth & then to accept me, flaws & all in order to redeem me. 

 

 

 Hope & Pain 

 

How much longer O Lord?

How much longer must we wait?

When the promise seems so distant,

Yet the heartbreak so close at hand.

 

 

            Our hope is gone, our pain is great!

            Yet you, O Lord please come awake-

            The plan you have is great indeed-

            Your love for me!

 

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Our story is one of old

Of grief & sorrow too great to hold!

You alone can carry it-

If we but trust you to bury it

 

            ‘Neath mountains of un-quenching love

            Our voices joined in praise above

            Of your unfailing grace & peace  for me!

 

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Hope only rises from the deepest pain

And love overcomes our grief & shame

To God alone our praises rise

Your Word & truth will be our guide

 

            You calm our fears

            You hold our tears

            Though every trial seems many miles

            Of endless sorrow

            We hope for tomorrow….

 

 

         Friends of ours had gone through several terrible losses in regards to children. On one particular day, my husband called me to tell me that they had just found out more devastating news in regards to an adoption that would not be happening as planned for these friends.

 

             I happened to be baking bread that day & as I went back to work kneading the dough, I was praying for them to know God’s peace.  I began pleading with God, asking him how much longer they would have to wait & suddenly words began to form in my head that were powerfully saying what I sensed they were feeling.  I had to stop what I was doing & go write these words down because I knew there was something holy happening.  Then I went back to work & it happened again.  Several times I had to stop what I was doing in order to bring forth the words flowing through my mind onto paper.

 

            Later in the day, I knew that there was something very powerful & special about this song & that if God had wanted me to have those words enough to stop me in my tracks already, than he might also have a tune he wanted to give me to go with the words.  I sat down & sure enough, the song flowed out to match the words almost effortlessly! 

 

            Now just to clarify- I had written songs at different points in my life but never had God given me a song like he did that day.  When I write songs it’s usually very hard work to come up with the words & the tunes are incredibly hard for me to find. 

 

             So I know that this is not a song that I wrote, but simply a song that God gave me to pass on.  At the time that I wrote it for them it felt very unfinished, like there was a chapter waiting to be written. But as life often does, another chapter did open up for them after a period of mourning & waiting.  And God continues to calm our fears & hold our tears as we hope for tomorrow.

 

PROMISES

Oh God of mercy, You have spoken

You can save this dream of mine.

You gave before but it’s been taken

Please redeem what’s been denied. 

 

Truth,   Love,   Trust, Hope

 

Reveal Your truth

Fill us with love

Help us to trust

Put our hope in You

 

 

Oh God we know your word is truth

We know your way gives life

No one comes to the Father

Except through His Son

 

 In truth and in love

Help us to trust & give us hope

 

In You O God

We want to trust in Your truth… (back to chorus)

 

 

  There are times in our lives where we question God. We all have dreams of what we think life will be like.  We recognize the times when God has given us what we’ve asked for. We believe & trust that God has spoken and promised something.

But the struggle comes when it seems like that thing has been taken away- especially if it was something that we believe God gave us.  Or worse, if we believe God has promised it, but it doesn’t come to fruition- at least not with our timing! 

Our friends were going through this & they had been incredibly brave to invite others into their journey as they struggled with the willful decisions of a family member that contradicted their dream of life for this person. 

Relationship had been broken and as I prayed for their family these 4 words seemed to be at the heart of my prayers for them: Truth, love, trust, hope.

It was my plea & my prayer for them. You see, when we go through valleys, sometimes we need help praying because the words seem lost & meaningless. And sometimes our hope is gone that anything will change or improve. And it is in those moments that we need our faith community to come around us & fight for us- to claim God’s truth and love on our behalf. And to pray that that we could trust again & have hope. 

I often think of the man who came to Jesus asking for a miracle for his demon-possessed son. Jesus tells him everything is possible for the one who believes. 

The father’s responsive is so honest & one I have cried out myself many times. “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!’.  How often do I believe with my head, but I struggle to believe with my heart?

The words of this song are sung on behalf of everyone who believes, yet struggles with unbelief. It is for anyone who is struggling with broken relationships.  May you take this song as your own to cry out & plead with God for restored relationships.


     FLY                                                                

Help me to have open hands with him, God

So when he flies away I don’t damage his wings

May he fly free & far for you our Lord

May he always remain true to you

 

He was ours for many days, now it’s time to let him fly away

Fly free, fly far fly for God’s glory

I’ve held him close for many years

Now it’s time to release all my fears

Fly free, fly far, fly for God’s glory

 

I’m grateful for the time you’ve given to us

Though it seems so short now that we’re through the thick of it

The years have flown by and it’s been worth every minute of it

What will I do without him in the midst of us?

 

I was yours for many days, now it’s time to let me fly away

Fly free, fly far fly for God’s glory

You’ve held me close for many years

Now it’s time to release all your fears

Fly free, fly far, fly for God’s glory

 

 

While before me stands a man

Yet in his eyes I see the child he was

The boy within the man

Holds a piece of my heart. Wherever he goes- I go

 

My son was taking a weekend trip to visit his girlfriend & her family in another state.  I had been really struggling with the fact that my time with him was limited to only a few more years (at most) before he would move permanently out of the state & out of our everyday lives. I admit, there were feelings of jealousy for the other woman in his life as I saw that I would no longer be the most important woman to him.

 At the same time, our second son was beginning the process of looking at colleges and I could almost audibly hear the clock ticking down the time when our house would no longer have the sound of 3 boys living their busy lives among us. 

I began writing a very selfish song, with the idea that I would ask just one thing of my sons.  I wanted it to be that he/they would come back to me.  But as I struggled with that idea, I knew I couldn’t write that. I knew I had to give my sons back to the Lord who so graciously allowed me to borrow them for these years.  I have known that all along & have tried to keep my hands open in regards to our children but sometimes the temptation is to pull them close & not let go, especially when they’re anxious to leave!

For many years we (mostly I) have raised monarch caterpillars & watched them become butterflies.  I have found it to be one of the most miraculous & amazing transformations to be a part of & I find so much inspiration in it. The picture came to mind as I recalled how careful we had to be when getting the butterflies out of the container for the first time after they had changed forms.  Touching or holding their wings would damage them permanently so they wouldn’t be able to fly away, which would be a shame for such a beautiful creature & would render it unable to survive.  

Instead, we had to place our fingers near the feet & gently nudge the butterfly so that it would step onto our fingers.  Then we could carefully & slowly lift it out of the container.  Once they felt the sun hit their wings, it wouldn’t take long for them to take flight & fly, sometimes far away, but often to the first available tree or bush to rest & regain strength for the next part of the journey. 

I’m finding the same is true for raising children.  The process to get there is so long & tedious & you wonder if it will ever end when you’re in the midst of those early & middle years, just like the seemingly never-ending focus of eating leaves for the caterpillar who simply eats & grows.

 Then our children hit the teen years & you realize it’s similar to them changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Everything looks & feels different!  And suddenly, much faster than you expected, the metamorphis has happened right before your eyes and it’s time for them to fly away & you have no control over how fast or far they will fly. 

So while I want my children to come back to me, I realized that day that my deepest wish for them is to do what God has called them to do.  They were each created for a very specific purpose & what I have tried to instill in them is to do everything in their power to follow the path He leads them on & to remain faithful to Him.  In doing so, I will be with them forever in the end, even if we are apart on this earth.  And if they do what they are called to do, then I will have done what I was called to do which is raise young men who love God more than themselves.

            And yet, even as they are becoming men, I still see my children at every age they have been when I look at them.

And some days, depending on what they are saying or what we are talking about, I see the innocent desire to please mama in their eyes.  It’s such a beautiful & wonderful moment when it happens and I remember that my little boy is still inside the man he has become.

 

 

          Hallelujah what a Savior!

You have blessed us beyond measure

Your grace astounding- how far you reach

To save the lost and the forsaken

Even when they don’t know they’re out of reach

 

 

Hallelujah  what a Savior!         Hallelujah what a friend!

Glory to my Lord and Savior!    Highest praises to the end!

 

 

O Lord we glorify             Your name we lift on high       

Our voices raise to praise you always

 

 

Our grateful praise we raise              With faith we all proclaim

Your loving kindness is for everyone

 

 

 I was reflecting on how many blessings were in my life and this song just flowed out as a song of worship.  It was so simple & so sing-able and so different than all the other songs I had been given.  At the same time, I was reflecting on how others can’t recognize the grace God extends to them, yet He continues to reach out to seek & save those who are lost. I was praying for a particular adult child of a friend in mind as I wrote those words but it applies to all those who have yet to recognize God’s blessings. 

 

            When I finally got the courage up to introduce this song to our worship team, I didn’t even put my name on the song, I guess because I didn’t want to be embarrassed if they didn’t like it or if it just didn’t sound good. One of them asked who wrote it & the other person said she knew it & started looking it up.  I had a moment of panic as I wondered if I had accidently plagiarized a song by hearing a tune & thinking it was my own!  Thankfully it turns out I didn’t! 

            The first time our congregation sang it, I didn’t mention I had written it either.  As we sang through it the first time, a few people sang along, but when we went though it the second time, I was amazed at the way people were singing it out, loudly & confidently!  This was only the 2nd time they had heard the tune & yet they were already worshipping through it! 

 

            Then it hit me.  The dream I had as a child to be a singer & have people singing in front of me- it was happening right then!  It was such a surreal thing. I felt like I was living my purpose in an intense way that I never had before! It looked different than I imagined it, but it was like destiny being fulfilled. 

 To be doing what I was created to do & have others singing a song I had written… it was so fulfilling! That was a confirmation that this was a God-given song of worship & was going to be used for His glory. 

 

 

    CRY OF THE UNBORN

 

What have I done and now what should I do?

The easy answer is get rid of you

Shame overwhelms me & fear overcomes me

Now I must run and hide what I’ve done

 

 

This doesn’t make you unloveable

I want to live, I hope you do to

Please don’t call me a mistake

My life has meaning, so does yours

 

 

I know you’re afraid, please be strong & brave

There is help to get us through this

Who gets to decide which life is worth, more than the other?

 

 

I have the right to choose          You have no right to refuse

More than this life will end I’ll lose all that I’ve worked for (2x)

 

 

I am a person, not just a problem for you

Please give me a chance to live a long life

You could learn to love me if you would look me in the eye

Feel me inside you and know, I don’t want to die there

 

You have the right to choose     I have no right to refuse

More than my life will end, you’ll lose (2x) (a piece of yourself)

 

Our life together, our joy together,

our future together, our love together

 

I am a person, not just a problem for you…

 

Thank you for my life

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you

 

 

        In the summer of 2021, the idea of this song came to me. It was one that would tell the story of a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, along with the story of the child inside her.  This idea implanted itself inside of me & it ruminated for months as simply an idea with no words or tune. 

         In the fall, I went to a fundraiser banquet for our local Pregnancy Support Center & this feeling that there was a song that needed to come from this idea became even more urgent within me. 

            Then in October the words & music were born in a rather short amount of time.  It begins with a hauntingly beautiful tune which symbolizes the conception of this child and returns throughout the song.  Next, you hear the intense, almost harsh music & words of a person in conflict within themselves.

The things I imagine a woman might say to herself & about herself in that moment of panic when she realizes she is pregnant. I have not been in this situation, and even though I had planned to get pregnant with our son, the moment I saw the positive symbol on the pregnancy test, I felt panic as my first thoughts were ‘What have I done? My whole life is about to turn upside down!’            
            I can only imagine how much more intense the terror would feel when you don’t have the emotional or financial support of a husband!  We are human & we must allow for human responses that our choices elicit.  Of course a woman in this situation is going to freak out!  We must be willing to hear a woman express her fears & assure her she is not unlovable because of this.

The child’s voice assuring her is an ironic twist as it is usually the parent comforting the child. But as a mother told me recently, when she became pregnant unexpectedly, the child within her actually gave her a reason to live which she had previously lost, so in a sense that child saved her mother’s life. 

I hope everyone who hears this song will never again call a child ‘a mistake’ because those words hold power over a child’s heart throughout their life. Those who conceived you may have made a mistake, but that does not make the child a mistake!  I cannot stress enough how passionate I am about making sure children know they are not a mistake and that their life has meaning. 

The line ‘There is help to get us through this’ is to let women in this situation know that even though they may feel alone & afraid, there things in place that can help you through this. Pregnancy support centers, churches full of people who will help with finances and supplies if you decide to keep the baby as well as adoption agencies who will help you place your baby with another family if needed.  Even though it will not be easy, the resources and people are there for those who are willing to ask for help.

 The song then goes back to the mother’s perspective as the cry I have heard in the media so many times has become almost a war cry of women. “I have the right to choose!” is heard throughout our nation.

But then the songs shifts one more time back to the child and what they might say if they could. The voice of the child reminds us this is a very real person, not just a problem. 

There is absolute submission & resignation in the voices of the children who sing that ‘You have the right to choose. I have no right to refuse’ because everyone knows that in this country the woman has all the legal rights and the child within her has none.

Here is the most powerful part of the song for me: Everyone who sang on this track are all children whose biological mothers were in situations of unplanned pregnancies. The world would have looked at their situations and said they had every right to terminate the pregnancies of these children.  I was very specific in who I chose to sing because I wanted to make sure that the song was authentic & true to the message.

These children remind us of what they will lose if the choice is made to end their life before they are born. We’ll lose our lives together, our joy, our future together, and our love.

The part of the song I knew needed to be included was the voices of these children saying thank you.  I personally know all these children and the impact their lives have on me and their families. Their stories are real and powerful and speak to me in such a powerful & deep way. 

This song is not a condemnation of those who have chosen abortion. Those without sin cast the first stone & that is certainly not me! 

No, this song is given as an encouragement to those who are considering their choices in regard to the life that is growing within them. 

To see that even though it is an incredibly hard thing with drastic consequences to choose to go through with a pregnancy & then either raise that child or give them up for adoption, there is meaning & purpose in it. 

I and the children who are alive today because their mothers choose life, as well as many adoptive parents are grateful that this choice was made.

 

 

 

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