Parents, undoubtedly, two of the most horrific words to hear come from your teenage daughter has got to be "I'm pregnant." How do you react to that? How does she react to that? How does he (the father) react to that? This is not an easy subject to talk about, but thinking about it beforehand may help. We'll come back to that in a minute. First, I want to look at the reaction to a crisis pregnancy in the Bible.
The king of Israel made a mistake. Most likely you know the story of what happened between him and Bathsheba. Israel was at war. 2 Samuel 11 says that it was the time of year that most kings were at war. David was at his palace in Jerusalem for some reason. We don't know why. The Bible doesn't say. He seems to not be where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there. So much of our trouble could be avoided if we were only where we were supposed to at the time we were supposed to be there. Anyway, back to the king. He sleeps with another man's wife. A man who was fighting for him and his country. Bathsheba sends a message to the king letting him know that she is pregnant and he is the father. King David goes into panic mode. His first reaction is to bring Uriah back from the war so he can be with his wife. Sounds nice right? The intent, however, was to pin the pregnancy on Uriah. Uriah doesn't fall for it. He is a noble man and doesn't even go in with his wife because his fighting brothers can't be with their wives. David spirals further out of control to have a drink with the man whose wife was the woman he committed adultery with. Again, what an honor right? Wrong! King David was only trying to get the man a little tipsy so his guard is down so he will go in to bed with his wife this time. Uriah knows better than that. The next reaction King David is unimaginable. He commits premeditated murder. Only this premeditated murder was done at the hands of his army. David has Uriah sent to the front lines where the battle was fiercest. Then, he has the audacity to have the rest of the soldiers pull away at the general's command. David put other men's lives at jeopardy by doing this. His sin spilled over into the lives of other innocent people.
Playing sports growing up, I think in almost every one of them there is a drill where the team turns with their backs facing their coach. The coach has each player turn while he sends the ball in their direction. The player is supposed to react to the ball in order to catch it. The point of the drill is to get the players to more quickly pick out where the ball is and be able to react to it in a split second.
Is there a way to have a spiritual drill that makes our reaction to sin not faster, but better? I don't know if reading the Bible more helps in this case. David knew the Bible inside and out. Yet his reaction was horrific. In Psalm 32 David lets his readers in on what was going on behind the scenes after he sinned against the Lord. When he tried to keep it hidden between him and God, his guilt ate away at him (vs. 3-4). But when he admitted it to God, the weight was lifted from his shoulders and placed upon the Lord who can take care of all sins (vs. 5), no matter how heinous they are.
Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.
~Psalm 32:6
Having a personal relationship with God by talking to Him daily, as well listening to Him, may increase your chances of reacting in a Godly way to a crisis pregnancy in your family. Other things you can do are: listen, give advise when asked, and get help where needed.
Much of the content of this blog post is taken from Group's Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministry, chapter 7.
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