On March 1st, 2022, the Teen Mother Choices Program celebrated its 33rd year of demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ to teen moms. Every year I’m reminded of how God brought Teen Mother Choices into existence. Teen Mother Choices is proof that God can redeem anything and anyone to share the love of Jesus with others.
For me, it happened in 1988 while walking through a shopping mall in Mt. Prospect, IL. I was 6 months pregnant, and I found myself thinking about the baby I aborted eight years earlier. Whenever I thought about my first child, I would feel a sense of sadness and regret. I had asked Jesus to forgive me and knew that He had, but I still found it difficult to feel joyful about this pregnancy. That day, as I walked into the food court, I saw several teen moms with their children. The emotions I felt for them were compassion and love.
It was as if God was saying, “Look at these moms, Christa.
They made the life choice to parent their children.”
With my eyes open and my ears anxious to hear their stories, I spent two hours asking questions about their lives and futures. I left the mall thinking, “I asked teens not to make the same abortion choice I did, but I have never thought about what happens to them after they give their children life!”
After that encounter, I couldn’t stop thinking about the teen moms I met! The more I thought about them, the more determined I was to find help for them. I spent time praying and reading the Bible to see what God had to say about serving teen moms. I spoke to teachers, social workers, doctors, and others to gain their perspectives. After nearly 10 months of conversations and research, I approached my pastor and asked him if he thought our church could start a program for teen moms; young women who had given birth and made the choice to parent their children. After the church’s leadership discussed and prayed over this decision, Teen Mother Choices began serving teen moms on March 1st, 1989.
After having an abortion, I believed the lie that God could never use me after the choice I made. In His grace, He forgave me and allowed me to use my past to reach young moms. He can use anything and anyone for His glory and the good of others!
Do you believe your past is keeping you from being used by God to share the love of Jesus with others? Let me say it again…there is forgiveness in Jesus’s name, and God can and does use anything and anyone to fulfill His purposes.