“I’m not going to kill a healthy baby because I’m sick.” Ashley Bridges, a courageous 24-year-old woman, decided to prolong receiving treatment for bone cancer when she found out she was ten weeks pregnant. The decision to prolong treatment most likely will mean detrimental effects to her health and possibly death.
But as she says, “I mean, as a mother my job is to protect my kids.” You can read the story here: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/16/us/mom-with-cancer/index.html.
Sometimes when we love someone, even someone who isn’t born yet, we make sacrifices, and oftentimes, love means putting someone else’s life above our own. Some people would find the actions of this woman to be naïve or foolish. Why wouldn’t she try to save herself? Why not put her own interests first? But the fact of the matter is, even though her child is not yet born, she is no less of a human being.
The reason this story made the news is because of this woman’s courageous choice, but the reality is that every day women facing an unexpected pregnancy make the same courageous choices.
Many women decide to put school or their career on hold to raise their child. Other women have to sacrifice their relationship with their family because they are pressuring her to have an abortion. Still other women sacrifice their finances to have their child. Unfortunately, society looks down on all these types of decisions because they believe that women shouldn’t have to make sacrifices for a child. The reality, however, is that sacrificial love is real.
When we put down our own needs and interests for the sake of someone else, we love them in one of the deepest and most unselfish ways possible. This type of sacrifice for love may not have outward and obvious rewards, yet there are huge internal rewards that others just can’t see. For example, women are told that they need to succeed at work and get raises and promotions. They need to get straight A’s and be at the top of their class. Achieve, Achieve, Achieve! But no regard is given to women who choose to be successful, sacrificial mothers. Maybe it’s time we all started looking at sacrificial love the same way Ashley does and stop letting others define success for us.
Having an unexpected pregnancy is very difficult, just as difficult as sacrificial love. If you are pregnant and wondering how you can get through it, there is help. There are pregnancy resource centers located all across the United States and the world that can help you give birth and raise your child. Just go to www.optionline.org and you can find help near you.
Sacrificial love is one of the greatest things we can do for another person. Unfortunately, it goes largely unappreciated by our culture. But the reality is, some of the most valuable and precious things in our lives go unnoticed and unappreciated. But like Ashley we can choose to do what is right, even if other people don’t understand.
