Looking Back

LifeNews Article

I'm looking back at this article - originally published almost 7 years ago (in 2 days in fact). It has been shared over 158,000 times from just this one link alone. Other media outlets also covered it, and those ones went viral as well. Foreign outlets translated it in multiple languages and it was shared from there too. After that, I would find out from other people the article was shared again and then again over the years, and those ones went viral too.

When I moved to The Dalles, I wanted to be under the radar to clearly see where God was leading me, and who liked me for me, not what I had done or who I was connected with. There were a few reasons for that. So, when this happened, people would say, "Whoa, a friend from Georgia shared this article, and I was like, 'That's ROBYN!' Wow, I didn't know this about you."

When it first came out, a friend was surprised that their atheistic, feministic liberal friend in New York had shared it with a caption like, "Amazing story and amazing woman!"

But, I know the real reason why it went viral.
Yes, it's my story of overcoming.
Yes, AJ is a super cute and impactful boy that the world fell in love with.
But, there was definitely more to it than that.

I don't always write the way you're taught to write in grammar/English class. I usually have an idea of what I'm writing, and then God takes over.

As I wrote this, it was toward the end I felt God's clear message pouring out of my heart...
I can't describe to you the love and pain of others I felt for people.
Because, the bottom line is, a true pro-life message is based in all-encompassing love.

I can love people, yes.
But, when I feel God's LOVE pouring through me, it's supernatural.
It's a thick, enveloping love for others with the personal filter of emotion lifted from my human nature that I can't fully explain.
It makes no sense for me to feel that way - so when I do, I know it's God.

I wrote my story, but as I wrote the message I felt God wanted me to write, I began sobbing.

Tears were pouring out of my eyes as I envisioned the girl being hit by Daddy, as he called her worthless and ugly.

I sobbed as I saw the boy who never had life-affirming words on his value and character in who was or could be - often verbally abused at home and rejected everywhere else.

I cried as I saw the teenage girl who wanted to dream and hope, but was neglected her whole life and told by her own mom she wished she was dead.

My heart ached as I saw the starving kids in a drug-infested house with junk everywhere, with the feeling this wasn't a life worth living nor having - and ignored by those who could've or should've helped.

I wept as I felt the pain of the girl who seemed to have it all, but had to earn superficial affection through her accomplishments and otherwise deemed unimportant - human value only amounting to success.
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Deep pain wrenched my heart as I saw the little girl who had been molested and sexually abused by family members and friends; I wanted to hold her so tightly and tell her she's not dirty, and so so precious.

I will never forget writing the last, unplanned paragraphs of this article through blurry, stinging tears as they cascaded down my face.

The truth why it went viral...
It went viral because people felt loved.

God loves you,
- Love, Robyn