A Choice to Heal

Aletha Sands is slight, beaming. She likens herself to the woman at the well (John 4), “attempting to fill her thirst with empty physical needs, most of them not needs at all, just silly and selfish wants.”

Dessirae, MaKena (Aletha’s granddaughter), and Aletha Sands

As a teenager, she thirsted for love and approval. “I freely gave of myself, hoping someone could ‘complete me,’” Aletha says. “Ironically, nothing is free and the price I gave was only more of my soul, inevitably leaving me more wounded, empty and incomplete.”

In 1979, Aletha found herself pregnant. Too afraid to face her family, she turned to an abortion clinic.” I do not remember any options being offered or attempts to persuade me that life was forming in the walls of my womb.” After years of struggling in life, she cried out to God, “Help me!” She came to know Christ as Lord and Savior. Aletha says,

I sensed my Redeemer passionately pursuing my heart, never satisfied with the morsels I offer, but yearning for more of me, all of me. He asked her to open the door to the “messy rooms of [her] heart.”

Years later, Aletha and her husband received a call. Dessirae, his daughter, was pregnant. She asked to come live with them. Instantly Aletha’s heart was in conflict. That hit too close to home-another teenage mother, but one who “chose life (for her child) instead of death.” Aletha was forced to face her past. The sovereignty of God is amazing. Aletha thought she could help Dessirae, but in reality God was using Dessirae to help heal Aletha’s wounded heart.

God continued to deal with Aletha’s heart. In her quiet times with God, He revealed Proverbs 28:13, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy,” and James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.” A few months later, Aletha attended a LBC Women’s Leader study where she was moved by the vulnerability of the facilitator sharing her own story of abortion and God’s healing. Aletha was ready to face her past and made a choice to find healing within the LBC post-abortion support group.

This is a portion of her thank-you to the facilitators:

“God’s love, grace and mercy were demonstrated tangibly in and through you. You embodied Isaiah 40:11, ‘He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart.’ You shared in our sufferings — as we mourned you mourned, and as our tears fell, yours fell…with us and for us. Your prayers and encouragement led us close to the cross, allowing His blood to flow freely, washing away the weight of shame, guilt and unforgiveness that burdened us for too long.”