The Life Challenges Podcast
The Life Challenges Podcast
Surrogacy and Christian Ethics
Is surrogacy compatible with Christian values? Join us for a compelling exploration into the heart of gestational and altruistic surrogacy through the lens of Christian ethics. We tackle the societal trends driving the rise of surrogacy, including same-sex marriage, delayed parenthood, and fertility challenges. We delve into the motivations behind choosing surrogacy—from the convenience over traditional adoption to the control it offers over childbearing timelines. We explore the ethical complexities this presents for Christians, including the moral considerations surrounding IVF and the option of "snowflake adoptions," where unused embryos from IVF are given a chance at life. Our discussion also uncovers the darker side of the surrogacy industry, touching on the exploitation of women in developing countries and the profit-driven nature of this business. Join us for a thought-provoking and spiritually enriching conversation on the complexities of surrogacy and making faith-driven choices in today's world.
on today's episode.
Jeff Samelson:And it goes back to something that hit on connection to many issues that we've discussed on this podcast, and it's a matter of God's design. I think his design is quite clear One man and one woman unite in marriage, then, from the union of their two fleshes, a new life, a child is conceived and carried by the woman and then is born and lives with his or her father and mother in a family. That is God's design. Now, certainly there are exceptional situations, but those exceptional situations come about because of sin, whether it's somebody's deliberate sin or simply as an effect of sin in the world or whatever sin in the world or whatever. And the fact that there are those exceptional situations, then doesn't excuse a deliberate stepping away from God's design.
Paul Snamiska:Welcome to the Life Challenges podcast from Christian Life Resources. People today face many opportunities and struggles when it comes to issues of life and death, marriage and family, health and science. We're here to bring a fresh biblical perspective to these issues and more. Join us now for Life Challenges.
Christa Potratz:Hi and welcome back. I'm Krista Potratz, and I'm here today with pastors Bob Fleischman and Jeff Samuelson. Today we're going to talk about gestational surrogacy. It is a topic that we have not talked about specifically on an episode before of the podcast, and it's one that we hear a lot about. I guess it kind of ebbs and flows a little bit too with what we hear about it, but we are going to be talking about that today, and so I think maybe a good place to start is just what is gestational surrogacy?
Jeff Samelson:Well, basically it's when a woman is paid to carry through all stages of pregnancy, give birth to and then hand over forever a child that is not her own. Someone else's egg was fertilized by someone else's sperm in a lab and the embryo was then placed in her womb to grow and develop until it's time for delivery, pretty much immediately after birth. Then whoever the parents who paid for all of this take possession of the child. That's what's commonly called gestational surrogacy.
Jeff Samelson:We should mention that there's also something called altruistic surrogacy, much less common, but this is when a woman bears someone else's child under the same basic conditions, but there's no money or remuneration involved. It's usually done as a favor for friends or for family members. You know, like my sister's going through chemo and we're doing it, I'm going to do this for her, or something like that. Or maybe somebody just kind of finds it inconvenient to have a child and you know so somebody else is doing it for her. Sometimes surrogacy is used to describe a situation where it's not another woman's egg. They actually use that woman's egg and you know, through artificial insemination, the father of the couple who wants to have the child or whatever is involved. But that's not typically what is included when we're talking about surrogacy I?
Bob Fleischmann:like the fact that Jeff gave the two definitions because we encounter most often we encounter in the media gestational surrogacy We'll get. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban had a child through gestational surrogacy. They paid someone to carry the baby so that it did not interfere with their careers. Or maybe there was a health issue that we're not aware of. Those could have been, but that's gestational.
Bob Fleischmann:The altruistic one is the one that we actually encounter most in the office here. We'll get inquiries and it almost always is not always, but almost always is a sister wanting to do it for her sister or her sister-in-law, where there's an infertility issue in a couple and so a sibling wants to do this for them, and one of the rises within Christian circles. The question often is quickly addressed up front that we're going to do it through IVF, we're going to do it through a petri dish mixing sperm and egg. This does not mean that I'm going to have sex with my brother-in-law or something like that, and they're always quick to put that out there, which always telegraphs to me that promiscuity or chastity purity is a foremost issue on their mind and that's what they think is a major obstacle. So that often comes out a lot. So our experience again in the media is through gestational surrogacy in the office, with practical experience with altruistic surrogacy.
Christa Potratz:We will touch on both of those and stuff as well too, I guess. Maybe just generally speaking, why has it become increasingly popular recently?
Jeff Samelson:Well what Bob mentioned. It's more in the news. You find out certain celebrities particularly if you look up to them in some way are doing it. So it's more like, oh well, this is something that people do and it must be okay. But I haven't done any study on this or seen any statistics on it.
Jeff Samelson:But my impression is that the really big driver behind this is same-sex marriage, because you have two men who call themselves a married couple and they say well, we did the marriage thing, now we want to do the family thing. And of course there's a problem Two men can't themselves have, have a child, and so they work out a gestational surrogacy arrangement. Sometimes happens with two women as well in a same sex marriage. Another reason is something we've talked about a number of times on the on the podcast, which is the fertility concerns that come when people delay marriage and delay having kids. They get married late and it's not until maybe their late 30s that they say, okay, well, we're ready now to have children. And then they're not able to and maybe they go through IVF and that doesn't work, or they don't want to go through IVF with all the trouble or something like that, and so they say, well, hey, there's this other thing that we can do, and so they'll opt for the gestational surrogacy.
Jeff Samelson:Sometimes it's just because having a child is seen as inconvenient or uncomfortable. Maybe they're afraid of it. I actually saw a quote from Paris Hilton. She had a child through surrogacy and apparently she said she was just deathly afraid of childbirth. That's the reason she gave for it, and I haven't really seen this. But I think that for some couples they may actually see gestational surrogacy as easier than getting a child through adoption. Adoption can be a long process. You never quite know how it's going to turn out or when it's going to be completed, and it can be very expensive. So this is a way that you kind of can guarantee the outcome somewhat through this and you know exactly what you're getting, or at least that's the hope.
Bob Fleischmann:I think another issue too is that couples are waiting, trying to finish their academic training, trying to get well-established in their professions, and as a result they get up there in age and so they become concerned either by possibility of problems with the child if they wait too long or too old. You sometimes will have increased birth defects when you wait too long. But the other one is that it becomes just practically very difficult to go through, so then they can hire out. I'm always surprised over how the public becomes absorbed by an issue when it's just out there a lot. If everyone talks that way, then all of a sudden everyone starts to talk that way.
Bob Fleischmann:I know that sounds like contradictory, but I still remember a conversation that I was involved with that included Derek Humphrey. We were talking about assisted suicide and Humphrey said our goal is to get people to talk about death with dignity so often that they grow to expect it and then accept it. So, as a result, when we talk end of life, even with strong Christians, they'll say well, I want dignity. The Christians are always today talking about quality of life, the end of life, and that's just because you've bought into this whole conversation on how to do it. So I think when it comes to surrogacy, we get a lot of people that just you hear enough, you just put it right out there with one more option.
Christa Potratz:I have heard a lot recently with celebrities and other people too, encouraging women to freeze their eggs and then you can kind of control when you want to have a child and just this idea that you're more in control if you can do something like that and it goes to the kind of the later-in-life push that people are having kids too.
Bob Fleischmann:Pete. Well, and one of the difficulties of talking about surrogacy from a Christian perspective is that you can't really find biblical references that talk directly about it and you get that all the time. People will say that about abortion, but abortion really isn't hard to deal with biblically Without using the word. There's references. The problem with surrogacy is that I got a feeling that we sometimes find ourselves talking the wrong issue.
Bob Fleischmann:The other day I was in the car, I was listening to NPR and NPR was talking to a fellow who had written a book about illegal immigration and the whole conversation on NPR was on how illegal immigration had provided a very sustaining trade cycle, both legitimately and illegitimately, all through Mexico and in Central America and people coming out. And I'm listening to this thing and I'm going, you know, because he literally was talking about how to do this best, to make the best profit and how to do it in the safe way and everything. And I kept going. But we're talking illegal and so when I look at the surrogacy topic, you know people, whenever they ask me, I go right back to I have trouble with IVF In order to accomplish surrogacy. Whether it's altruistic, whether it's gestational, it involves using IVF and IVF is still extremely hazardous for an unborn child, and there's a drive to want to have children, and when I talk to people about it, I'll say so.
Bob Fleischmann:How would you feel if there was a passage in Scripture that said God prefers that you not have children, right, what would you do? And, of course, there's dead silence. If they're angry, they'll say it doesn't say that in the Bible. Well, that's not my point. My point is where's your heart? Otherwise, you sometimes get lost in the cycle of talking about method and approach and cost and all that kind of stuff and I'll say but what if the answer was no from God? Do you accept what that is? Truth be told, you know, I personally encourage what we call snowflake adoptions. We've done shows on that, which is unwanted embryos, that were created in an IVF.
Bob Fleischmann:I view it as a rescue. Yeah, you know, and that's really a form of surrogacy when you think about it but it's not. I get uncomfortable when people are willing to talk about. Well, I want to help my sister by having this child, but they don't want to wrestle with the mechanisms that are involved with the process.
Christa Potratz:It kind of touched on it a little bit, but you know, I mean it has become increasingly profitable, a very money-making industry. I mean, even when you mentioned, like the snowflake babies and stuff too, there's a lot of money moved around and in that area. Why is that? Why is it so profitable, such a profitable industry?
Jeff Samelson:now, Well, I'd say, first of all, it's a business. It's not a service so much as it is a business, and businesses are always looking to make more money and there's a real profit motive. And if business A looks over at business B and sees that they're making more money, well, they're going to find a way to catch up with that. Mentioned that the internet has made it much, much easier to connect buyers and sellers the parents who want children or the prospective parents who want children, and the women who are willing to sell the use of their wombs. In many cases it goes through an agency, and so the agency takes its cut, and in many cases, when you read some of the articles, they're taking a very big cut and the woman is not getting all that much of it. And this is not just a local thing. In fact, most of the gestational surrogates are overseas, and they're usually in countries that are less developed. And so there's this, you know. Again, this is how can we make the most money off of this?
Bob Fleischmann:Yeah, early in the when Russia attacked Ukraine, that was a big issue that showed up in a number of papers about how in Ukraine there were a number of women who were serving as surrogate mothers and how that has created this angst for American families that were looking to have a child in this way.
Christa Potratz:Yeah, I remember hearing some of that as well. Yep, so there are criticisms that we hear. I mean and Bob, you know you've talked about some of them in the Christian community, but there's also secular criticisms too, with surrogacy. What are some of those that we hear?
Jeff Samelson:Well, there are still some people who question the ethics of it, just in general, and that's good. We encourage more of that. There's a recognition that there are legal and logistical problems. What happens when there's something wrong with the baby? Who gets to decide what happens to it? The mother who's bearing the child get to say no, no, no, I want to bear this child? The mother who's bearing the child get to say no, no, no, I want to bear this child. Or do the prospective parents get to say no, if it's possible, it's going to be damaged or less than perfect in some way. Let's abort it.
Jeff Samelson:These are complications that often are not very well addressed by it, and so there are people who say, well, you shouldn't do that. But I think the biggest secular criticism is in the area of exploitation, because typically, you know, the women who are serving as gestational surrogates are poor or they're in a bad situation and they're finding out oh, this is a way that I can make some money and it's presented as something easy. You know, not really, but anyone who's gone through a pregnancy will admit to that. But it's an exploitative thing and it's basically a woman who's basically selling her body to somebody for their use and usually when you put it that way, people say ooh, ick. But when you present it as well, this is a service, it's a business then it's presented differently. But it's usually that exploitation, particularly when it's rich Westerners taking advantage of poor people in developing countries, that's the biggest secular criticism.
Bob Fleischmann:A lot of times it starts off with a good intention. A lot of times, efforts that are motivated, that are rooted in strong emotion we got to have a child, we want to have a child and so forth lacks the objectivity to think through all the ramifications. So when you accept the reality that we all have an evil inclination, including your best friend, including yourself, including the people who are going to offer to help you and facilitate this process when you remember all that it quickly degenerates into, there's going to be profit streams for people, there's going to be other motives and then when you encounter problems, oftentimes strong emotion, lacking commitment, doesn't carry it through. So, like Jeff raised, when a child has been diagnosed with a fetal abnormality of some sort, then people weren't expecting that, because by the time they got to juicestation or surrogacy or altruistic surrogacy, they've already encountered a few failures.
Bob Fleischmann:They've either had multiple miscarriages, they've gone the route of IVF and it just never takes when they attempt to do implanted in the biological mother's womb and so they've put an awful lot into this, and then it's kind of like they get crushed when they find it's not the way it is. Now, as we're talking, I have to admit I've been thinking how would I feel if I was one of those couples that really, really, really wanted a child? And there's people I know people in my congregation that have used a gestational surrogate and it's just a wonderful, and it's theirs, it looks like them and it's just a wonderful—and it's theirs, it looks like them.
Bob Fleischmann:You know everything Because that's one of the things, too, is through surrogacy, the child that's born is your child. I mean, biologically, it has your features and so forth, and how you get so absorbed in this. And that's where I raised the question earlier and that is kind of the question of where's your heart. I've said this many times before we tend to like God as long as he agrees with us. And it's a real test because that drive to have children and to have your children is strong. I mean, I've been involved with a number of adoptions or people considering infertility. And you raise adoption, they'll say oh, no, no, no, we really want our children and, of course, so surrogacy will look like an answer to that issue, but they haven't thought through all of the implications.
Christa Potratz:Is there. I mean, as you're talking to Bob and you know you're kind of playing on the emotional type of like, yeah, I mean, maybe she was born fine but, you know, had a car accident or somehow now isn't able to carry children and oh man, you know, like this Christian woman just really wants to help. I mean, is it ever okay? I mean, can I don't know? I mean like just with the technology and with you know the way it goes like, is it ever going to be? Oh yeah, you know that could be a way to help. That could be a good thing, be a good thing.
Bob Fleischmann:Well, I have wondered on the scenario of so you've got a sister who, very, very just, very sincere Christian, wants to help her sister and her sister has some level of pregnancy. Incontinence can't sustain a pregnancy. And so she says, rather than risking the loss of life through another IVF process, I would take a snowflake baby when it's already has been discarded. The problem, you know. First of all, and if they came to me, can I do this? I would have difficulty saying no, I don't see a biblical problem because it is a rescue of the child at the embryonic level. But the problem is the parents would have to accept the reality this is not going to be biologically connected to you.
Bob Fleischmann:Now, that being said, I know a number of snowflake babies who are now as few of them are in their teens, even or older. Actually, some of them look like their parents. It's funny because it's in fact the parents will say oftentimes people who don't know, they'll look at a child and go boy, he looks just like John, you know, or something like that. And she said we just smile because we know that genetically it's not linked to us. But if I had a sincere Christian who's willing to do that out of your love for life. You don't want to risk more children through IVF. Then maybe volunteer to be a surrogate for a snowflake child.
Christa Potratz:All right, so is the real issue the IVF part then. Well, personally, it is for me, okay, okay.
Bob Fleischmann:I've read a lot of stuff where they complain about breaking the parent bond and all that kind of stuff, but a lot of that is almost like Christianizing social psychology on it.
Bob Fleischmann:Let's say, I did a printout of some of the stuff. And, yeah, it introduces a third parent, it's a distortion of the family relationship, all that kind of stuff, and those are. I think those are all valid, just practical issues to deal with. But from a Christian standpoint, the one clear, solid line that I feel that we can be very solid on, and that is that a child is at risk. Now I've asked myself if IVF ever became good let's just say the IVF success rate was comparable to natural conception would I be more comfortable with it? I probably would be more comfortable with it.
Bob Fleischmann:Now, that being said, these other social issues breaking of the family bond, all that kind of stuff I think are worthy of their own discussions. But again, that's more opinion than it is. You know, I'm trying as a Christian, I'm trying to grant all the freedom we can with Scripture, without binding consciences, while at the same time recognizing that there are also just practical issues that come into play. Now, I'm not sure too how snowflake babies work. I can't remember from the episode if our guest had told us that you have to be. I only know them within a married couple situation, where the couples always are married. I don't know if they will do them on a single person. I don't believe legally it's a problem, but I'm just not familiar with it.
Jeff Samelson:I'm actually a lot more comfortable taking a theological approach to this and saying no, this is not something a Christian woman should be comfortable doing being a surrogate and it goes back to something that I've hit on in connection to many issues that we've discussed on this podcast, and it's a matter of God's design. I think his design is quite clear One man and one woman unite in marriage and then, from the union of their two fleshes, a new life, a child is conceived and carried by the woman and then is born and lives with his or her father and mother in a family. That is God's design. Certainly, there are exceptional situations, but those exceptional situations come about because of sin, whether it's somebody's deliberate sin or simply as an effect of sin in the world or whatever. And the fact that there are those exceptional situations then doesn't excuse a deliberate stepping away from God's design.
Jeff Samelson:If God has said this is the way it should be done, well, who are we to say no, I'm choosing a different option because it's available.
Jeff Samelson:And that whole idea that, just because something can be done, it's okay to be done, is something that we, as Christians, should be very hesitant to adopt, Certainly, particularly with the more altru way, but it's still a matter of deliberately saying we're not going to do things the way God has set out to be done, and some of the things that Bob mentions about creating a three-parent family. In fact, in some cases it's kind of more like creating a four-parent situation. But it's just that the place for Christian love and service to your neighbor is not in participating in a disordered act, it's in stepping in after sin has done its damage and seeking to serve those hurt by it, which is why I don't have any problem with snowflake adoption, Because that is after the fact and Bob used a great word there is a rescue. It's much different from deliberately creating the situation and then stepping in, and certainly any situation where money is changing hands.
Jeff Samelson:I mean you're commodifying it, you're putting prices on the priceless, you're commercializing the miraculous, you're exchanging money, really, for human bodies and souls, and I just don't feel that that's something a Christian woman should be comfortable with.
Christa Potratz:In preparation for this episode, I did my usual Google search and when I was looking at I don't know, just maybe, like what does the Bible say about surrogacy or something like that it mentioned the story of Abraham and Hagar. Hagar, yeah, and you know, okay, yeah, like not exactly surrogacy there, but just this idea that they really felt I mean that, yeah, like this is not happening and so now we need to kind of take it into our own hands to have an heir, and so this is how we're going to do it and we know how the story goes. There were a lot of problems with that and I just thought that that was just kind of interesting how they brought that story into the discussion of surrogacy.
Bob Fleischmann:Well, and I think it was a heart problem again when God has laid out a path in life and all of a sudden you say, well, I like it, I'm like, oh, this part I don't like, and so then you begin to start taking steps to sidestep. And so Jeff and I are not as far apart on this as we may sound, but I tend to approach it differently in terms of when people ask themselves what is my first desire. And the first desire is well, it's obvious, I want a child. And see, now we have a problem right there, because your first desire should be to deserve God, and then all of your decisions and everything trickle down from that focal point. But if you start from a different spot, which is I want a child, or I want a house or I want a career, when you do that you begin to take all sorts of tangents that are not in line with the will of God, and that's always going to be a problem, no matter how safe any procedure is. Not that I'm backpedaling, because I do think.
Bob Fleischmann:Once IVF if IVF ever becomes comparable it raises interesting questions. But if your heart is not right, even right decisions are not right. Apart from faith, it's impossible to please God If you're showing more faith in your's impossible to please God If you're showing more faith in your own judgment than in God's judgment. It raises serious questions, but I will tell you that is a difficult pill to swallow. In our culture, we've all been conditioned to stand on our own, make our decisions and have the right to make our own decisions, and then, all of a sudden, when you find that God might have something else in mind, our first impulse is well, what's wrong with God, instead of what's wrong with us.
Christa Potratz:So then I guess you know, maybe just a question then is what might we say to a woman who is considering surrogacy? It seems a little callous to say, well, maybe you just weren't meant to have children. What would you kind of say to somebody in that?
Jeff Samelson:Well, as with all difficult conversations, it depends on who it is. What's your relationship to this person? Is this a one-shot thing or are you going to be able to have a long conversation about this? If someone were to call me up and say, hey, I'm considering this, what do you have to say?
Jeff Samelson:It would be different from if I was a pastor and this was my member coming to me and say we've been thinking about this, we want to communicate to, whether it's the couple considering contracting a surrogacy or a woman who's considered being the surrogate. Basically, we'd want to communicate all the things that we've been talking here, all these concerns, but to do it, as always, in a gentle and respectful way. Just simply say don't do that, christian wouldn't do that, or consider that Probably not going to get the hearing that you really want to have. So you want to be gentle and respectful with it. Fortunate thing is that, unless somebody has already taken all the steps and they're saying I've basically already done this, it's a slow process and so, generally speaking, we should have the opportunity to have that longer, deeper conversation explaining all these issues and hopefully addressing the heart issue that Bob has been talking about, instead of simply the practicalities of it and the things that people might want to focus on.
Bob Fleischmann:Well, and if I've learned anything in this position, it would be, it's sure, a lot easier to talk about it academically than to be talking about it from a personal perspective. And no matter what the issue is, whether it's infertility, whether it's abortion, facing an end of life decision, all of those things take on a whole different feel to it when it becomes personal. But I've also learned that when we run by our emotions, when we run by our passions, it seems like those are the most susceptible to our sinful inclination. And just as a rule not even talking about surrogacy, just in general we're willing in passion to do things that we know, logically, we shouldn't have done. And I just was listening on my playlist of music when I'm mowing the lawn or something. I've got a number of songs on there.
Bob Fleischmann:You know, garth Brooks does one, a couple other people where they all talk about. I sure am glad, when I prayed to God to marry this woman, that it didn't come true and that I married somebody else, because now I've married the perfect one, you know, and that kind of mentality. Well, that passion, she's the one, that's the one I want, and everything like that doesn't always tie in with the will of God and my problem is in my position. You oftentimes don't have the luxury of an ongoing conversational relationship. People want to know can I or can't I? And then if you come out with a statement that they agree with, I'm a genius. If I come out with a statement they don't agree with, I'm an idiot.
Bob Fleischmann:I mean that's the way it goes. I mean it just. You can't win because everyone's looking for validation of their perspective and it's almost hard unless you're dealing with it only academically to try to find the truth. It's when you're plunged in the middle of it. You want validation and it's a tension.
Jeff Samelson:Yeah, and just in regard to what Bob was describing there, that dynamic, that's one of the reasons why it's always good, when you can, to ask more than tell, use questions to draw things out. It's like well, why exactly do you want to do this? Why exactly are you thinking that this is legitimate and get them to examine for themselves their motivations and the information that they're working with and things like that, rather than just kind of preaching at them and that way they feel much more like oh yeah, this is a conclusion I reached, rather than this is what I was told.
Bob Fleischmann:If you're listening to this podcast and you're listening to it, you chose to listen to this one because you're suffering from infertility in your relationship and you want a child and you feel this is an option. You got to ask yourself why you like or don't like what you've just heard us talking about. Part of living the Christian is constantly searching your own heart. Where's my conviction coming from? Are those three people wonderful for bringing clarity or are they terrible for just getting in the way of what I really want to do? Regardless of what we say, have you been driven back into God's Word? Have you been trying to find? Does God have a will for you in your current situation? And it's hard. It's a hard thing to swallow, and I've gone through many things.
Bob Fleischmann:Not having children has not been my problem. Infertility hasn't been a problem. I've had other things, though, that I sincerely, sincerely, sincerely desired, and not only sincerely desired, but was absolutely convinced it is the best God-pleasing approach to do it, and God has said no, and, of course, I'm like everybody else. So what's wrong with God? The problem isn't God, the problem is me, and sometimes you just have to wrestle with it and talk around it. Plus, too, just one other thing and I know this touches more on infertility than anything, but sometimes you'd be surprised. I've had members who wrestled with infertility. Nothing happened, nothing that they could do. They weren't everything and, quite honestly, they moved. We used to always joke that it must have been in the water. You know, whatever it was, they moved and had two children, naturally. So just remember, we're dealing with inexact sciences and so sometimes the answers may elude you, but it's only temporary.
Christa Potratz:Well, thank you both very much for this conversation. I feel like we've talked a lot today and have really just given a lot of different, maybe perspective on this topic of surrogacy, and if there is anything that you'd like us to talk about in the future related to this topic, let us know, and you can look up more on this topic at christianliferesourcescom, and you can reach us at lifechallengesus. Thanks a lot and we look forward to seeing you back next time. Bye.
Paul Snamiska:Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Life Challenges podcast from Christian Life Resources. Please consider subscribing to this podcast, giving us a review wherever you access it and sharing it with friends. We're sure you have questions on today's topic or other life issues. Our goal is to help you through these tough topics and we want you to know we're here to help. You can submit your questions, as well as comments or suggestions for future episodes, at lifechallengesus or email us at podcast at christianliferesourcescom. In addition to the podcasts, we include other valuable information at lifechallengesus, so be sure to check it out. For more about our parent organization, please visit ChristianLifeResourcescom. May God give you wisdom, love, strength and peace in Christ for every life challenge.
