Respecting all Life

Today thousands of people are descending upon Washing DC for the annual March for Life. If you are unfamiliar with this event I encourage you to take a look at it's mission and history here :https://marchforlife.org/about-the-march-for-life/

I'll be honest with you, I had no idea about this event or  that "pro life" groups existed until I went away to college. Now this is not to say that I wasn't pro life prior to this. My parents didn't teach me pro life or pro choice. These were not phrases spoken in my home growing up. Rather they taught me to value life and respect others just as they are. They didn't teach me what it meant to be pro life, they SHOWED me by their actions.
Respecting life was not just a single issue in our home. My father made a regular habit of hiring workers who were undocumented. He paid them weekly so they could send the money home to their families.When they needed new work boots or pants he made sure to help them out. There were two brothers that were regulars for my dad. They were there daily to work. When my dad got a new work truck he gave them his old truck. He had his reasons and I'm sure one of them was so he didn't have to pick them up and drop them off each day.
 Every Christmas dad would get a list of what their children needed for school. He would line up the shoe boxes with the list for each child and we would go shopping to fill all those little boxes. One Christmas the teenagers needed graphing calculators and I never once heard my dad sigh over the cost. I don't remember exactly how many he purchased but I know he did so because I remember placing them into the boxes. I honestly can say that my dad often did more for others then he did for us at times. I'm sure he's done a lot more then I realize over the years because for him you just do it because it is the right thing to do.
 So fast forward to my first ever March. I was excited and full of energy but I had no idea what was in store for me. You have to realize that people from all walk of life attend this event even those that do not agree with it. To top it off there are HUGE pictures of very graphic images! Boy was I not prepared for that. I was not prepared to be standing between two polar opposites both of whom had no respect for the other. The whole March I held back tears and once safely on the bus to go back "home"I just cried.
You see in a way my parents were protecting me from the hate and nastiness of the world. They wanted me to form my own opinions and experience things in my own time. I'm sure had I been invited to attend a March sooner they would have allowed it just as they allowed me to attend a vast variety of other things when invited by my peers. This allowed me to experience  a vast variety of life and see how others worshiped and prayed or didn't.
While I respect those who march for the unborn as the March was created for I also pray that they see that the message of respecting life goes far beyond the womb. Life isn't just life in the womb, life is all around us and all life needs to be cherished and loved even if it doesn't look like our own.

I pray that all those in attendance today find love and charity for all those they encounter, even for those who are standing opposite from them. I pray they stay warm and safe, and I pray with them as they March for the unborn. Lastly I pray that they will give voice to others in need of a voice or who need help making their voices heard.

( Image taken from Democrats For Life of America's facebook page)