Free Core of Conviction : My Story (9781101563571) by Michele Bachmann Page B

I felt real confidence. Profound confidence. Finally I felt armored and equipped, ready to confront the world and its many challenges. I knew that I belonged to God and that He loved me, and so I no longer had to depend on the approval of others. My cheerful childhood outlook had been damaged by the move away from Iowa, then more damaged my parents’ divorce. And while I had kept plugging away through my early teen years, learning and working, I had felt a gnawing insecurity—an insecurity that is common, I realize, among children of broken homes and blended families. Maybe that’s why I had joined every club, thrown myself into every activity.
    Now, looking back on my life before Christ, I realized that I had been searching for something and not finding it. I had sought approval from teachers and classmates, and while they were almost always nice, they could never fill the real void in my life. What I needed was a close personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. It was upon the rock of that revelation that I would build my life, and if I kept faith with Him and His Word, even the gates of hell would not prevail against me. I was one with Christ, and I knew I would be one with Him forever.
    From that day on, all the ordinary fun of high school—even cheerleading—seemed far less important. It wasn’t about me anymore. Now it was about Him. I had to listen, through prayer and Bible study, for His plan for my life, and how I could use my talents and my abilities to glorify Him. That next summer I joined my dear friend Barb Norbie—my sister in Christ, as well as my sister in life—as a counselor at a Lutheran Bible study camp in Bay Lake, Minnesota, way up north. We all did the usual camp things—swimming, boating, arts and crafts—but every morning and every evening we learned about the Lord.
    I had always been hardworking and success oriented, but now I felt an inner motivation. I was going to work even harder and aim even higher. But I would not labor for the sake of material possessions; I would labor to follow His precepts and was profoundly gratified for God’s grace and mercy in my life. Tests and challenges, to be sure, come to everyone, but they are never more than we can handle, with His help. By trusting in God and His Covenant Word, we can find the strength to overcome. The world may buffet us, but the Word bolsters us.
    So now, more than ever, I looked forward to being happily married someday, surrounded by a lovingly united family. That was my commitment to the Lord: In addition to following the Lord, I wanted to be a good wife, a good mother, a good citizen, and a good American. And with God’s help, I would do everything I could to leave the world a better place.
    Yet as I grew older, I came to see forces at work that were making America a worse place, not a better place. It was hard for me to comprehend that certain forces in society were seeking to undermine the family, to undermine the traditional structures of our society, and, indeed, to undermine all the moral and political achievements of our Judeo-Christian heritage. It was an onslaught against the goodness of the American tradition. And the worst of all was the devaluation of human life. Life, I realized, was losing its value.
    I had always loved children, and yet well into my teens, I was naive about abortion. I guess I had a hard time even imagining that a mother would not want her baby. I was sixteen at the time of the Supreme Court’s
Roe v. Wade
decision, and I will admit that I didn’t quite understand what it was all about. But then a Catholic friend explained it to me, the full disastrous dimensions of what the Supreme Court had just done to our culture and to our nation. I was shocked by what she said, and I immediately realized that I was completely committed to a pro-life position. Why would our government legalize taking the life of an unborn baby? Why should an abortion-minded young