A young woman returning to church discovered that she was pregnant. While her father wrapped her in his arms and told her “everything would be okay” — her boyfriend asked her to “get rid of the baby.”
“When a single woman discovers that she is expecting an unanticipated child,” shared Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, after recounting this story, “health concerns, spiritual turmoil, embarrassment, financial worries, educational questions, marriage uncertainty and the sadness of shattered dreams can, in a moment of pain and bewilderment, lead a thoughtful woman to take steps that will bring deep pain and regret.”
For any “who have experienced the deep pain and regret from having or participating in an abortion, please remember, although we cannot change the past, God can heal the past.”
Cherishing unborn children
President Dallin Oaks once said of Latter-day Saint teachings, “our attitude toward abortion is not based on revealed knowledge of when mortal life begins. It is fixed by our knowledge that all of the spirit children of God must come to this earth for a glorious purpose, and that individual identity began long before conception, and will continue for all the eternities to come.”
“The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has never varied and echoes the words of prophets through the ages, giving divine clarity to what the Lord has asked of us,” he said. He also cited a church statement affirming belief in “the sanctity of human life” and opposing “elective abortion for personal or social convenience.”
Members of the church are counseled “not to submit to perform, encourage, pay for or arrange for such abortions,” he continued, noting possible exceptions for rape, incest, when the life of a mother is in jeopardy or a fetus has defects that won’t allow it to survive. “Even in these rare situations, it should be considered only after the persons responsible have received confirmation through prayer and counsel with others.”
The apostle went on to describe a couple he knew who learned their unborn child had Down syndrome. Despite multiple heart surgeries that would be required and repeated pressure from the medical field to consider termination, this couple felt comfort in fervent prayers and revelation that their daughter was “an elite child of Heavenly Father and has an immense desire to be in our family and to come to earth.”
As the mother said, “the Savior healed my heart and gave me a sense of peace and excitement about our baby girl.”
The couple welcomed this baby one week ago, Elder Andersen said. “She is theirs, and they are hers forever.”
“Nurturing and protecting life that is yet unborn is not a political position,” the apostle reiterated. “It is a moral law confirmed by the Lord through his prophets.”
The diminishing love for unborn children worldwide is a grave concern, he emphasized. “God cherishes life. ... As disciples of Jesus Christ, we cherish life. ... May we share our love even more abundantly with those who need us so desperately.”
Teaching children in our homes
Sister Amy A. Wright, first counselor in the Primary general presidency, asked parents about their children’s experiences at home: “Do they hear testimonies of Jesus Christ and His gospel? Do they see reverential, worshipful images of His ministry and Godhood? Do they feel and recognize the Holy Ghost?”
Please take every opportunity “to lead them, guide them, walk beside them and help them find [the way],” she said. “When we tell our children we love them, are we also telling them that their Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ love them?”
However a parents’ love may comfort, divine love can do something far more if children come to know it, she said. “This Jesus should not be a fictional Jesus, or a simplistic Jesus, or a bodiless Jesus, or a casual Jesus, or an unknown Jesus, but a glorified, omnipotent, resurrected, exalted, worshipful, powerful, Only Begotten Son of God, who is mighty to save.”
Homes as a refuge
An earlier apostle, Elder J. Reuben Clark, Jr, once shared: “The youth of the church are hungry for things of the Spirit. They are eager to learn the gospel, and they want it straight, undiluted. ... They are inquirers, seekers after truth.”
Citing this statement, Elder Andersen encouraged parents to “speak more often with faith and compassion to our youth in our homes” — including about “the Lord’s law of chastity” and “the sanctity of life.”
“If we become casual in our discipleship of Jesus Christ, it could be catastrophic for our children,” underscored Sister Wright.
Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles likewise cautioned about an “absence of respect for the sacred” and “an increasing casualness in attitude and carelessness in conduct, which can rapidly inspire one generation into apathy and catapult the next generation into misery.”
This apostle highlighted “the risk of caring only about our own comfort, satisfying our uncontrolled appetites, and ultimately arriving to the unholy place of despising sacred things, even God, and consequently, our divine nature as children of Heavenly Father.”
“We do not need to go to the top of a mountain like Moses did to discover reverence for sacred things,” Elder Soares continued, emphasizing that homes can become places of sincere prayer, earnest study of God’s words and obedience.
“These efforts can bring a quiet and certain stillness to our hearts,” the apostle encouraged. They can “surely help transform our homes into reverent places of spiritual refuge — personal sanctuaries of faith where the Spirit resides, much like the mountain experience of Moses.”
Becoming like children
President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, cited the self-serving worship of a wayward people in the Book of Mormon, who prayed “with their mouths while they are puffed up with the vain things of the world.”
By contrast, he said, “is there anything sweeter, more pure, more humble, than a child at prayer? It is as if heaven is in the room.”
“But for others later on, the experience can become more superficial,” President Holland acknowledged. Citing Elder Richard L Evans 60 years earlier, he said, “many of us profess to be Christians, yet we do not take him seriously. We respect him, but we don’t follow him. We quote his sayings, but we don’t live by them. We admire him, but we don’t worship him.”
“How different life could be if the world esteemed Jesus above the level of a profane swearing streak from time to time,” President Holland continued.
“Even in their youngest years, children love so easily,” he added. “They forget so readily. They laugh so delightfully that even the coldest, hardest heart can melt.”
All this, he said, helps explain the Savior’s revolutionary teaching, “Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”