A Mile

I’ve done it and most of you have too.

You see a teenage girl in tight clothes, obviously pregnant and you think, “She can’t be more than 17! What’s she thinking? Well, dressed like that, it’s no wonder she’s pregnant. She probably doesn’t even know who the father of her child is.”

Or you see a young man with three inches of boxers showing and think, “Probably a gang-banger. Probably does drugs and uses girls. Maybe he’s even wanted for armed robbery. I wouldn’t want to meet him alone in a back alley!”

I’ve recently been very burdened for my children’s biological mothers. I wonder, “Would I make choices that were better given their upbringing and background?” Do you or I know what it’s like to have to truly make an effort to break the cycle of sin? If your mother wasn’t married. ever. and still had eight children, would you get married before you had your first? If she did drugs and abused alcohol, would you be any different? If you were sexually abused by your stepfather or your mother’s live-in boyfriend, would you feel like you’re worth anything – especially the true love of a good man? If you had to choose between bad and worse is that really a choice? (These examples are not necessarily a reflection of our biological mothers’ lives, just my own thoughts.)

I was reminded of a song from way back…

There was no one there to hold her hand the night her baby came, just a couple waiting down the hall to give her child a name. At seventeen she learned the meaning of a mother’s love. To give her baby life, she knew she had to give it up. Could you walk a mile in that woman’s shoes? When you have no choice, how can you choose? Don’t be quick to judge, till you’ve been there too. Stop and think for a while, could you walk a mile in that woman’s shoes?

And so I speak to myself, “My Father knew these souls were worth the life of His Only Son. Are they not worth my time and a life that shows them the love of Jesus? Do they not deserve acceptance, just as they are?” Yes God demands purity and holiness, but maybe friendship offered without strings attached is what they need to bring them to purity and holiness. We have no right to hold them at arms’-length, making assumptions about them. We need to embrace them, draw them to Christ with our compassion.

Judge not that ye be not judged.