Marriage Matters

by Marit Heidbreder

The summer wedding season is in full swing! We recently traveled to the nuptials of one of my dear nieces on a beautiful ranch in Wyoming. It was an outdoor wedding ceremony bathed in warm sunshine with the stunning backdrop of a bubbling brook gently flowing behind the altar. The weather cooperated beautifully, and the guests were thrilled by the breathtaking flowers and thoughtful details. My sweet niece and her husband chose to save their first kiss for their wedding day – it was such a precious moment as they were pronounced husband and wife before their Creator and guests! Now the fairytale begins, right?
 
Despite appearances, many things went wrong prior to that perfect ceremony! It’s not important to share all the details, but suffice it to say that numerous struggles arose in the 24 hours leading up to the big event, including a crazy hailstorm. Maybe you can relate? Weddings can bring all kinds of stress and drama as they come with the pressure of potentially being the most important day in the life of the bride and groom.
 
As weddings are often extolled as the beginning of a fairytale life together, I appreciated the truth of the situation held within their selected Scripture and elaborated on by their minister. The couple’s wedding verse was taken from Ecclesiastes 4:12, “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  Anyone who has been married knows that while there are countless fairytale moments, as mentioned in John 16:33b, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
 
Through the gift of Godly marriage between a man and a woman, we don’t have to face the hardships of life alone. In fact, we don’t even face them just side-by-side as a couple. Christian couples have the infinite power of Almighty God as the third strand to their cord as they navigate the joys and trials of life. It was an amazing blessing to witness this young couple’s entrance into Holy Matrimony, knowing that while they don’t know what is ahead, they do know their Creator is with them every step of the way, providing His strength and wisdom for each day! 

As my husband and I come up on our 25th wedding anniversary, I look back and remember many instances when God faithfully provided His strength and supernatural help to our circumstances. Praise God for His incomparable gift of marriage and family!

What’s Your Collar?

As you may have already guessed, this is another weekly email where I find a way to intertwine a story about our dog Annie. I’m sure there is some deep-seated issue to why I try to interpret public policy issues through the life of my dog, but we’ll leave that discussion for another time. What I want to focus on is Annie’s collar.

There is really nothing special about her collar. It’s red, has a few tags on it, and I attached an AirTag not long ago in a profound exercise of fanciful thinking that we could track her if she ever got out. It makes for a nice ornament on her collar, regardless. What’s most interesting about Annie’s collar is what it does to her when it’s taken off or put back on. This struck me again tonight as I took her collar off to wash the dirt and grime off it.

As I removed her collar, she became agitated. She started acting nervous, looking around, and nuzzled my hand holding the collar. I washed it in the sink, and all the while she stood right next to me watching. As soon as I dried it and sat back down, there she was, bumping into me to get my attention. She wanted the collar back on. As soon as I put it on her, she settled down and is now sleeping at my feet.

I regard her reaction to the collar as a holdover from when she was a rescue. She was clearly someone’s dog – she knows commands, listens carefully, understands that she shouldn’t repeat actions that get a “No”, etc. What I believe happened was that when she became pregnant with her puppies, the owners abandoned her. When they left her, they removed her collar. She was found wandering with two pups in tow and without a collar.

Now, this is just my guess at what happened, but we’ve had many dogs over the years, and none of them ever wanted the collar on, but always loved having it off. I feel sorry for Annie and what that moment must have been like for her. The final act that would forever be connected to the loss of her home and her “pack”.

I believe we all have collars of a sort. We all have things that make us feel good, while all the time they really enslave us. Perhaps it’s that new car you love, but constantly worry will get dinged in a parking lot. Or maybe it’s the attention one gets from an abusive home environment. A job that we like doing, but which slowly wears us down because of the toxic environment at our employer. I’m sure there are many more examples, but I think you get my point.

 I find that the world of public policy also has its collars. The need to prove that something bad is happening before making a law to address it (i.e., prevention is often not a familiar concept). We sometimes put up with the collars of letting bad laws get written into the Century Code because some law addressing an issue is better than none, right? It’s not just legislators, either, but those of us who lobby have our own collars. I sometimes see myself momentarily tempted to take the easy public policy approach, just to “get the win” and claim victory on some issue. Thankfully, that is not our calling or how we operate, but it sure would feel good, once in a while, to pick the easy issues.

Collars and their control over us can sometimes last a lifetime, as I’m sure it will with Annie. I wish I could help her get over her fear, but only she can do that. In the same way, you and I are the only ones who can take the first steps in shedding the collars holding us back and enslaving us.

So let’s be brave, acknowledge our collars, and ask God to help us shed them. Let’s not live in fear, but trust that God knows what’s best for us when He asks us to remove our collar. He doesn’t want us to be that lonely, unloved dog wandering the streets, but instead wants us to be safe and secure in the warmth of His love. We are part of His pack, and He’ll never abandon us.

Hope On The Horizon

by Jacob Thomsen

I have been a professional sports fan since I was very young. I fell in love with them and spent many hours as a kid pretending to be various sports stars while playing across the street with my childhood best friends.

Professional sports are incredibly popular and among some of the most popular programs on national television, with growing viewership every year. As an example, Major League Baseball (MLB) has an average viewership of 1.74 to 1.84 million viewers per game this season. This represents a large-scale increase in viewership, especially amongst young people.* Professional sports provide an opportunity to reach a wide audience, and for the last 5-10 years, they’ve been used as a soapbox for so-called “social justice.”

Since June has been deemed “Pride Month,” every team in the MLB, except the Texas Rangers, has a “Pride Night.” Some of the activities include free rainbow pride hats and t-shirts to the first 10,000 fans, drag queens throwing the first pitch, special rainbow uniforms, etc.

Recently, on June 14th, the World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers hosted their Pride Night against the Kansas City Royals. Their hats donned a rainbow version of their normal “LA” logo. Although he did not pitch, one of the best Dodgers pitchers of all time, Clayton Kershaw, wrote very visibly in marker next to the logo, GEN 9:12-16.

These few passages state, “12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Seeing this gave me hope. Clayton Kershaw is a leader on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he is not afraid of standing for Biblical truths. In the middle of Los Angeles, during Pride Month, on national television, he was not fearful. He had the courage to stand for something, which is a sign of promise from God, and not agree to the misappropriation of the rainbow by the LGBTQ+ community.

Though it doesn’t get nearly as much attention, the Dodgers have also hosted Christian Faith and Family nights, some of which Kershaw has led. His leadership is a great encouragement to me as well as other Christian sports fans. While we may be surrounded by worldly things and the worship of them, we should not accept them but stand for what is right and true at all times. Not all hope is lost in the world of professional sports.

The words of Jesus in Matthew 5:13-16: 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Let this be an encouragement to you this June. There are brothers and sisters in Christ out there boldly sharing the truth. Even in Los Angeles, in a professional sport on national television. The rainbow is meant as a symbol of hope for the world, a promise that God instituted thousands of years ago. Let’s not hide that hope, but put it on a stand for the whole world to see.

Our next interview: Senator Kent Weston

We are very excited to present to you our seventh legislator interview. Our purpose in doing legislator interviews is so that you can better get to know the legislators representing you, from both a personal and legislative perspective.* 

For our seventh interview, we decided to visit with Senator Kent Weston from District 15. He serves on the Senate Human Services Committee as Vice Chairman and as a member of the Senate Agriculture and Veterans' Affairs Committee. We know you'll enjoy learning more about his faith, his experience as a legislator, and much more.

Note: This interview was pre-recorded during the Legislative Organizational Session in December 2024.

You can watch the interview HERE.

2025 North Dakota Legislative Session Wrap-Up Summary

We’ve made it through the 2025 legislative session, and what a session it was! As I mentioned at our recent gala, the word amazing perhaps best describes it.
 
Session Overview
 
We identified 62 key bills in pro-life and pro-family categories and focused our efforts on them. Our engagement this session included:

• Performing three reviews of all 1,089 bills to identify the most important pro‑life and pro‑family bills

• Providing testimony on bills 98 times

• Educating you about the bills through 32 total emails, which included weekly updates, Call-to-Action requests, and other emails

• Helping you send 45,225 individual emails to legislators through our automated Call-to-Action (CTA) email system

• Explaining how to testify both remotely and in person

• Providing first drafts of bills to legislators as a starting point for their work

• Helping legislators improve bills and maximize their chances of getting the needed votes

• Giving legislators critical research and background information on bill subjects

• Asking legislators on an ongoing basis to vote in a manner consistent with your values

• Hosting a mid-session recap and informational event for legislators

• and much more

The number of bills we tackled this session and the associated work represented a 24% increase over last session. Thankfully, we had additional help with Marit Heidbreder, our newest staff member. She helped us complete background research, write testimony, stay on schedule and organized, and sometimes testify in front of committees as well. In fact, during one particular week we needed to create testimony for 18 bills and testify in front of 5 different committees, so it was incredibly helpful for Jacob and me to have someone else to assist with all these tasks.

Results

This session was markedly different from 2023. It was trench warfare. We would make progress on a bill, see some of that get taken away, make a bit more progress, and so on. Nevertheless, I am happy to report that we were successful on 67% of the bills we engaged on, and trust me that those were hard-fought wins. We are grateful to you and to God for allowing us to be part of the journey to get great new legislation passed in North Dakota.

You can find a topical breakdown of the categories of bills we worked on, as well as a detailed list of the 62 bills in the full-length session wrap-up HERE.

Almost half of all the bills we worked on this session were focused on education and pornography. While there were some good education-related bills passed, such as SB 2241 authorizing charter schools and HB 1222 about reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, the two fundamental educational choice bills (SB 2400 and HB 1540) did not make it into law. On the subject of pornography, the emphasis was on protecting children online and a number of important bills were passed, including requiring age verification for those under 18 years of age (HB 1661/SB 2380) and HB 1351 which prohibited “revenge porn” and deepfake images. 

There were three trafficking bills that we helped draft and fight for this session. Training for law enforcement on their interaction/response to human trafficking situations, education for school-aged children to help them identify and avoid human trafficking situations, and mandatory minimum sentencing for those found guilty of human trafficking. We are pleased that the latter two out of the three passed. On a related note, we were also very pleased that 100% of the life bills we worked on were won. 

Thank you for partnering with us during this past legislative session. In particular, thank you for your ongoing support through prayers, direct involvement in political processes, and financial support. Together, we can ensure that North Dakota will remain a state that promotes God-honoring citizenship and advocates for policies that strengthen Faith, Family, and Freedom.