Warrior for Life - PART 1

Looking for Part 2? Here it is.

Caleb is passionate about weapons. Am I stating the obvious? We believe he was born with a warrior spirit. It is an inherent part of how who he was created to be.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. –Psalm 139:13-16

A year or so ago, I asked Jesus what it would look like if that fascination with weapons were redeemed for His purposes. The answer I heard was that Caleb would fight to preserve life. Naturally, I began to pray that the Spirit would ignite this passion in his heart.

A little glimpse into an average dinner conversation in the Zerfoss home: I will often encourage Caleb to tell Joseph about his day. “Caleb, can you tell Dad something new you learned about penguins that you didn’t already know?” “I don’t remember.” Or, on Fridays, when he has spent the day away from both of us (with Grandma and his cousins), we’ll ask him about what they did, where they went. If we went by what he tells us, we would have to conclude it must be the most boring day of the week. His anticipation of Fridays tells us otherwise.

Enter, Friday, March 7, 2014. At dinner, I said, “Since you don’t really like to talk about your day, I thought maybe tonight I could tell you and Dad about what I did while you were with Grandma and the girls.”

Joseph, knowing I had spent my first of what would be six weekly, hour long peaceful prayer vigils outside our local Planned Parenthood with 40 Days for Life, interjected that he wasn’t sure Caleb was quite old enough to tackle that subject.

Unbeknownst not only to Caleb but to me as well, Joseph was hoping to pique Caleb’s curiosity. It worked. Especially because I respectfully voiced a differing opinion about Caleb’s readiness.

The timing was also providential. We were just around the corner from the SEVEN year anniversary of the first phone call we had gotten about a birth mom who wanted to interview us as potential adoptive parents for the son she was 38 weeks pregnant with.

We love to retell Caleb the story of how God brought him into our family. This time, we highlighted how his “tummy mommy,” Katrina, made the choice of life for him, rather than choosing abortion. And from there I went on to explain why I am passionate about praying for an end to abortion and would give some of my Friday time to that.

This has gotten rather long, so I’ll tell the part about Caleb joining me to pray in PART 2.