My living Memorial

My Living Memorial
A testimony as told by Crishana Loritsch

“I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life that you and your descendants may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19 Amplified Bible

I was a 20 year old junior at a Christian liberal arts college with a 3.5 GPA and my whole life ahead of me faced with a daunting decision. After denying the signs for weeks, I stood before my mirror caressing my belly with the realization that I was pregnant. As you can well imagine, a myriad of thoughts flooded my mind and each was more debilitating than the other. What will I do? What will my parents think of me? What will I tell my friends? What if I am expelled from school? As I determined that the best thing to do was terminate this pregnancy and protect my future, these words of Deuteronomy 30 rang in my spirit and the Lord spoke to me clearly, as if in an audible voice, saying, “Your life is not your own. I redeemed you and you have no right to make this decision. I am your life and that of this child and I am your future.” Several months later my son Tyler was born and he is indeed a living, breathing memorial to the goodness of God in my life. This is not an anti abortion post but rather a testimony of what God can do in a life that allows hard life lessons to become an altar of remembrance and worship.

There are many references in the Bible that speak about building memorials as a testimony to the mercy and faithfulness of God. These memorials were meant to be a visible, conspicuous reminder of what God did in the lives of His people. For me, God did a mighty thing as a result of this unplanned pregnancy. First of all, it brought me to my senses and reminded me that nothing escapes the view of Jesus, even those things that are done in secret. They will be revealed and brought to the light. Nothing says you’ve been intimate with someone outside of marriage like a pregnancy and the circumstances of my sin were some of the most difficult I’ve experienced in my life. Loss of reputation, loss of my academic pursuits and the societal stigma of being a “single Mom” were some of the little deaths I experienced. But as a result of my repentance God took this life event that for many was viewed as destroying my life and gave me life in Him that I could’ve never imagined, above anything that I could have ever asked or thought.

I am so thankful for God’s grace and love expressed to me and my son through the body at Calvary Temple Church. It truly takes a village to raise a child and I am forever grateful for this body of believers who stood with me to raise up my son in the nurture and admonition of Jesus. My son grew up with many godly examples, men and women dedicated to living to bring glory and honor to the Lord. We lacked for nothing, both physically and most importantly spiritually. In many ways I feel like Hannah must have felt when seeing her son serve in the house of the Lord. She prayed for her son, the Lord blessed her and all she wanted to do was give him back to the Lord as an offering. Her son grew to be Samuel, a great man of God and it all began with such humble beginnings, with a Mom seeing her son a living, breathing memorial to the goodness and faithfulness of her God.

Today I am blessed beyond measure with a godly husband, two wonderful children, our son, my living memorial and our daughter and a bonus daughter, as our son is now all grown up and married. Now my prayer is that my children each have their very own memorials to testify, “How great is our God!”