{"id":22446,"date":"2022-12-29T14:51:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=22446"},"modified":"2022-12-29T14:51:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T19:51:55","slug":"lifemark-shares-the-power-of-forgiveness-and-how-one-decision-can-change-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2022\/12\/lifemark-shares-the-power-of-forgiveness-and-how-one-decision-can-change-your-life.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Lifemark&#8221; Shares the Power of Forgiveness and How One Decision Can Change Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22452\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22452\" style=\"width: 383px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2022\/12\/lifemark-poster-credit-instagram.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-22452\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2022\/12\/lifemark-poster-credit-instagram-298x350.png\" alt=\"lifemark\" width=\"383\" height=\"449\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22452\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lifemark Movie\/Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Adoption is all around us, even if we don\u2019t recognize it. <a href=\"https:\/\/adoptionnetwork.com\/adoption-myths-facts\/domestic-us-statistics\/#:~:text=How%20many%20children%20are%20adopted%20per%20year%3F,are%20voluntarily%20relinquished%20American%20babies.\">According to the Adoption Network<\/a>, almost one in every 25 families in the United States with children have an adopted child. Nearly 140,000 children are adopted annually. Whatever the reason, choosing to put your child up for adoption isn\u2019t easy for any parent. \u201cLifemark\u201d tells the story of Melissa Cates, a pregnant teenager at a crossroads. In 1993, Melissa found herself at an abortion clinic preparing to abort her child. However, she changed her mind at the last minute and chose to give her baby up for adoption instead. This decision wasn\u2019t easy for Melissa, but she knew it was the best decision for her baby.<\/p>\n<p>The Colton family in Louisiana adopted Melissa\u2019s baby, David. David always felt he was adopted as a child, but he knew that his parents and grandparents loved him dearly. On his 18th birthday, David is uncertain but excited about his future. However, David\u2019s world is turned upside down when his birth mother reaches out to him via the adoption agency and social media. David and his birth mother eventually meet face to face, and she tells him he\u2019s adopted. David\u2019s mind is filled with questions like whether he should respond to his birth mother. He also wonders where his birth father is and questions why his parents put him up for adoption.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FXqcDZLb4zw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At that moment, David finds himself at a crossroads similar to the one his mother was at those years ago. Should he attempt to foster a relationship with his birth parents or continue his life as if she never reached out to him? Ultimately, with the encouragement of his adoptive parents, David realizes that he doesn\u2019t have to choose one or the other and can have both sets of parents. From that point, David starts to learn more about his birth parents while also forgiving them for the difficult decision they had to make. David goes on with life, knowing that both sets of parents love him and want the best for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLifemark\u201d is based on the life of David Scotton, who started telling his story in 2011 at a Pro-Life Oratory Contest at a New Orleans high school. After the film\u2019s debut, Scotton appeared on national television, at Catholic high schools and showed the film to Congress members to let people know that adoption is an alternative to abortion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLifemark\u201d is a heartwarming story of a mother\u2019s decision to lead her child to have a better life. It\u2019s also the story of a young man who had to decide what to do with his future. David is lucky to have an adoptive mother who desires a relationship with him. However, that\u2019s not the truth for all adopted children. In the end, David learned that it\u2019s okay to accept the different parts of his life because they all add to who he is. \u201cLifemark\u201d also teaches viewers that it\u2019s okay to forgive; David ultimately forgave his birth parents because he realized they wanted better for him. <a href=\"https:\/\/lifemarkmovie.com\/watch\/\">\u201cLifemark\u201d is available on DVD and on several streaming platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adoption is all around us, even if we don\u2019t recognize it. According to the Adoption Network, almost one in every 25 families in the United States with children have an adopted child. Nearly 140,000 children are adopted annually. Whatever the reason, choosing to put your child up for adoption isn\u2019t easy for any parent. \u201cLifemark\u201d&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":22452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Lifemark&quot; Shares the Power of Forgiveness and How One Decision Can Change Your Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David is a normal teenager living his life when his birth mother contacts him and tells him he&#039;s adopted. What happened next changed his life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2022\/12\/lifemark-shares-the-power-of-forgiveness-and-how-one-decision-can-change-your-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Lifemark&quot; Shares the Power of Forgiveness and How One Decision Can Change Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David is a normal teenager living his life when his birth mother contacts him and tells him he&#039;s adopted. What happened next changed his life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2022\/12\/lifemark-shares-the-power-of-forgiveness-and-how-one-decision-can-change-your-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-29T19:51:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2022\/12\/lifemark-poster-credit-instagram.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"541\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"636\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren McKeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Lifemark\" Shares the Power of Forgiveness and How One Decision Can Change Your Life","description":"David is a normal teenager living his life when his birth mother contacts him and tells him he's adopted. 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