Potential Unmeasurable
The following article was written by Anna Morken and won 2nd place in the BFLW 2020 Essay Contest.
”Thou shalt not kill” The seventh of the ten commandments (King James Version, Ex. 20: 13). This command came straight from the mouth of God, yet today’s society directly breaks this commandment over one hundred thousand times every single day. Approximately 125,000 babies are aborted on a daily basis, and we sit back and yawn (“Abortions Worldwide This Year”). It’s time to wake up, and do something. Perhaps we can never fully convince ourselves and others how evil abortion truly is until we fully realize the potential that a single life holds. What is the potential of a life? What is the worth of a single human life? Do we as humans have the right to take life from another? Life has potential; potential to bless the parents, to influence others for life, and to fulfill God’s purpose.
Life has the potential to bless the parents. In Psalm 127 the Psalmist says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the band of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate” (Ps. 127:3-4). Children are a blessing, however they are often viewed as a curse in today’s society. To many people they arc an inconvenience, and not worth the effort of raising. Contrary to this belief, many parents have found children a blessing. They wonder how they would ever live life without them. On July 20, 2015 the photoblog Humans of New York posted two stories of parents who chose life for their children instead of abortion. Over 13,000 people commented on this post, many of whom shared their own experience of choosing life and why they are grateful that they did. These comments demonstrate the blessing that children are to their parents. One mother talks about how she chose life for her daughter when she discovered that she was pregnant at the age of seventeen. “(My daughter) is 24 and the best friend (l)’ve ever encountered. She looks out for me, (and is) very protective of me and she is my biggest cheerleader. (I) can’t imagine what life would have been like without her.” Another mother shares how having a child has helped her make better decisions and has helped her clean up her life. A father explains how raising a child has helped him to grow. He argues that raising children gives the father the opportunity to show and impart “manly strength, … intelligence, … passion, persistence, and … love” (Brown). What if these parents had said no to life? Where would they be now? Children are not a simple inconvenience that should be gotten rid of and forgotten. Children bring purpose to a parents life. They bless them in ways unimaginable. Parents who choose life often wonder how they could ever live without their children. They are a gift and a blessing.
Children not only have the potential to bless their parents but also to help others choose life. When Dr. Imre Teglasy’s mother discovered that she was pregnant with him in 1952, she tried to abort him several different times. Thankfully, she never succeeded. Growing up Teglasy eventually found out about his mother’s attempts to take his life before he was even born. In the 1990s Teglasy founded a pro-life organization called the Alpha Alliance for Life. This organization believes that they have saved 43,000 lives. If Teglasy’s mother had succeeded in aborting him, not only would she have stolen Teglasy’s chance at living, she would have kept 43,000 people from having a chance at life (“Abortion Survior Says”). The potential of a single life to save other lives is so high. One life does not just influence one person. A single life holds immense potential to help give other people life.
The greatest potential any life can ever hold is the potential to fulfill God’s purpose for his life. At the beginning of his ministry, God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1:5). God had a plan for Jeremiah’s life before he was even conceived, but God did not just have a plan for Jeremiah’s life; God has a plan for every single person who has ever been conceived. ln Psalm 139 David talks of God’s plan for him before he was ever thought of. “My substance was not hid from thee (God), when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139: 15-16). Every life is part of God’s plan. There are no unplanned babies to God. He has made every single person that ever live, and he has had a plan for them. This world is missing millions of people with potential unimaginable simply because they were considered inconvenient to their parents. If only they could see the scientific discoveries never made, the books never written, the songs never penned, the joy never known, and the potential never realized because they chose to end their babies’ lives.
What is the potential of life? Unimaginable. What is the worth of a single human life? Unmeasurable. Do we as humans have the right to take life from another? Absolutely not. Abortion is a sinful scourge to our world, and it is robbing us of so much potential. We must spread the news. Life has potential to bless parents, to help others choose life, and to fulfill God’s plan. God treats life as precious. God says life is good. Who are we to defy Him?
Works Cited
“Abortion Sutvivor Says He Has Now Helped to Save 43,000 Babies.” life Institute, 20 Mar. 2020,
thelifeinstitute.net/news/2020/abortion-survivor-says-he-has-now-helped-to-save-43-000-babies. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.
“Abortions Worldwide This Year.” Worldometer, www.worldometers.info/abortions/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.
The Bible. King James Version, Thomas Nelson, 2017.
Brown, Kristi Burton. “Parents Share on Facebook Why They Refused Abortion and Chose Life for Their Children.” Live Action, 26 July 2015,
www.liveaction.org/news/humans-of-new-york-posts-about-couple-who-walked-out-of-a bortion-appointrnent-and-thousands-rcspond/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.