For You From The Word
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)
For You To Think About
A recent episode of Glee, a popular American musical-drama television series about a high school show choir, may be good drama but perpetuates a harmful myth about adoption.
The installment features a cheerleader who placed her child for adoption a year earlier. She vows to take back the baby from its adoptive mother.
The Myth: a legally-adopted child can be “taken back” by its birth parent. (This happens only in extremely rare instances.)
The Truth: a finalized adoption makes a child the legal member of member of the adoptive couple, just as if he or she had been biologically born into the family.
Birth parents who place their children for adoption undergo a very careful, often sacrificial decision process. They courageously choose what they believe to be in the best interest of the child. Grief is nearly always part of that process.
To depict a birth parent’s enormous decision as one that can be flippantly reversed is not only a falsehood. It also negates the dignity and respect that birth parents so richly deserve.
For You To Pray
Lord of life,
Let the truth about adoption be known – that birth parents make courageous and sacrificial decisions in the best interests of their children. Help birth parents experience dignity and respect.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.