Enter the Embrace Grace Giveaway!

What is Embrace Grace, you ask? And what’s Love in a Box? I was asking the same things when the folks at Embrace Grace sent me a request to discuss their ministry on my blog.  They sent me one of their Fearless journals as well as a Pro-Love necklace.

Like this:

And this:

From the folks at Embrace Grace:

Love in a Box is a pro-love initiative launched to help save babies and help moms get plugged into local churches for spiritual, emotional and physical support through an Embrace Grace group.

Boxes are distributed to pregnancy centers nation-wide and given to young, single women with positive pregnancy tests. The box is full of gifts that will inspire hope and impart love to a mom that may be scared for her future. Each box consists of a Fearless Journal and pen, a Bump in Life book, a baby onesie, testimonial letters of girls that chose adoption and chose to parent, an invitation to join an Embrace Grace group and a Brave Girl letter that can be written by YOU!

You have the opportunity to speak into the life of a mom that could possibly be contemplating a life or death decision. You can encourage, uplift and inspire her to choose life and to get plugged into an Embrace Grace support group at a local church.

We want to help brave moms choose life and get plugged into a spiritual family so they can be saved, discipled, mentored and be a part of a community that loves them the way Jesus loves.

Ways you can join in with this ministry:

1. Start an Embrace Grace at their local church so young women with unplanned pregnancies have a support group.
2. Partner with the national organization through prayer and support at http://www.EmbraceGrace.com
3. Download and print our brave girl letter (http://egrace.co/brave) and mail to address below for us to place inside a Love in a Box.  You can mail your Brave Girl letter to:

Embrace Grace, Inc.
Attn: Love in a Box
700 W. Bedford Euless Rd., Ste. G
Hurst, TX 76053

Oh! And don’t forget to

Enter the Embrace Grace Giveaway!

My thoughts on the book and necklace I received in exchange for an honest review:

I’m impressed by the enthusiasm that is going into this project, that’s for sure.  I can tell there’s a great deal of heart and care behind it.  I do have a couple of misgivings, though.  I like the journal, but I think that’s heartily due to the fact that I already believe in God; the journal seems to be designed with a belief in God presumed–or presumed that you’ll play along in order to get the help being offered.  In short, I’m troubled by the feeling that this books was put together with the mentality that Simcha Fisher calls Making Poor People Pray.  That said, the bullet-journal style lists are tidy and encourage the recipient to look beyond the present moment’s anxieties, which is a neat way of inviting someone in a crisis to consider a future past the present pain.

Regarding the necklace, I like the design and the message.  I also love the idea of helping a pregnant woman feel more beautiful than she might feel when she first looks into the mirror in the morning after a night of discomfort in all its dimensions.  I’m wondering if a necklace made from other, more natural materials than the ones chosen for this particular design might make a better presentation.  I hate to say it, but there’s no other way: the necklace looks cheap.  I understand needing to make the ministry affordable.  However, I have to wonder if other equally-affordable materials could be chosen to create something beautiful… or have the ministry at the church dig deep and buy the woman a quality necklace, even sterling silver, to remember her courage for years to come… and maybe even one day pass down to the child she gave life because of it.

These are just my opinions, however, so your mileage may vary.  It does seem like a noble idea, one that I might tweak a little, if I ran the zoo.   My girls and I will be joining in by writing some Brave Girl letters ourselves.  I think that’s a neat way to encourage someone who’s scared to the point of possibly biting off her own arm in order to escape a trap, if’n you know what I mean.

I received these products from Embrace Grace through Front Gate Blogger Network in exchange for an honest review.