I woke up this morning at 4:50 to take my son to swim practice it was a bit chilly this morning, I think we finally got some cold air from the northern states. Maybe God heard my prayer yesterday about being too warm in the south in the middle of January. I arrived home, still dark outside, quietly make myself a cup of coffee and began to check all three of my email accounts. There were way too many emails for me to read especially that early in the morning so I opened the ones that looked most important and bypassed all the others. Needless to say, those too were of no importance with the exception of one in my work account. A counselor from a high school woke up in the middle of the night and remembered that she had not secured a speaker for her teen pregnancy class. She forgot to invite a speaker to share some insight and guide these teens towards their future. So, this special someone decided to email me with an urgent request at four in the morning asking or better yet begging me to respond to her request. I think it was a "God thing" guiding me to that particular email at that particular time, but I responded and said "yes". I would speak to her class of pregnant teens.
Oh my Gosh!!! What was I thinking? I wasn't thinking, after all it was shortly after 5 a.m. that I had opened the email and had not really digested the fact that she meant today at 11:00am. I had already told my daughter yesterday that I would watch her 9 month old (my grand daughter) for the entire day today. What was I going to do? Oh, oh, oh, I manage to get myself into dilemmas, no one to blame but myself.
I had already hit the send button and now I was in a fix. How could I possibly send her yet another email and say "sorry, but I forgot I have to babysit today"???? I emailed her back and asked if I could bring my grand daughter. Of course, her reply, a big, YES!
Then I started to think, which I do on a rare moment, what was I going to talk about. After all, I was no spring chicken, I was not pregnant so how was I going to relate to these young girls?
There is always a part of me that wants to "mother" everyone, even people I do not know. I know these girls in high school are either embarrassed, feel defeated, do not see the light at the end of the tunnel, nor do they see what we as mothers already know and that is the life experience of the struggles and joys of raising children at a mature age with a spouse and a strong support system. These girls were single, did not have a support system, were either kicked out of their homes already or to be kicked out after the baby is born, no income, have not received their high school diplomas yet and most were in 9th, 10th, 11th and a few in 12th grade. These girls were babies themselves pregnant with babies.
I had to make this speech positive even if they had made choices that had set the stage for a life long change. Their road was going to be just a little harder, if you will, than most.
I have a daughter that is a single mother raising a child. She has a support system, she is older, she is educated with a high school degree soon to be receiving her college degree. Even at that, it is still a struggle. Somehow our family pulled the positive out of the downside of things.
What was I going to say?
What did I have to offer them that would give them hope?
What could I possibly bring to them?
I drove 20 minutes to get to the school with grand baby in tow. I prayed the minute my feet hit the floor board of the car until I arrived at the door of the school. I just asked God to use me however he wanted me to, but to just put the right words in my mouth to reach these girls, to make a difference because due to my lack of preparation I was really unsure of what to say.
The audience consisted of 15 girls and four counselors, me and baby. Five girls dropped out of school the week before, otherwise we would have had 20 girls.
I was introduced, then I introduced my grand daughter. My 9 month old grand daughter began my speech of general direction, guidance on their future educational goals, and lastly, hope for the future. She shared with them the reason they need to continue school. She shared with them the reason they need direction. Them seeing her was a reason to secure a future for themselves and for their baby. My grand daughter gave them hope. I spoke the words that day that God put in my mouth to those girls. I do not remember the words and the words really are not important. What was important was the way He maneuvered the actions of my grand daughter around those girls brining smiles among all of them. He gave them HOPE through her. He used me as the vehicle to get my grand daughter in the presence of those girls. I was her transportation. She was the speaker.
I wanted to talk about how God made an upside out of our downside situation. I wanted to talk about how God was in our lives, but I couldn't you see, I was at a a public school and we could not speak about God. I like to talk about God. I wanted to talk about God. How could I talk about this situation and their blessings to be without bringing up God. God however, knew exactly what to do, public school or not.
As it turns out, God was not mentioned in my speech, but his actions spoke loud and clear that day through my little grand daughter. Those girls may not have a high school diploma yet, but they knew exactly why we both were there. God shined a little light through my grand daughter for those young girls to see and in that light he gave them direction. He showed them that in giving love they too will receive. Every time one of the girls reached out to my grand daughter she reached out to them. It is kind of like the light God gave the shepherds the night they followed the star trying to find Jesus in the stable. God gave and the shepherds received. When my grand daughter started to fall, the girls would reach out to help and guide her back onto her feet. It is certainly the same way when we fall God guides us back onto the right path if we allow him. The girls learned that with a child there will be responsibility even if it is helping them get on their feet, but they too can get back on their feet if they seek help. And lastly, my grand daughter gave them hope, that through all the trials that are before them now and to come there is still hope to achieve their dreams and those for their children. They saw that although my grand daughter was only 9 months old, life moves on, we grow up and we have to face the uncertainty with hopefulness or we remain in the same place.
God said a lot in that 90 minute speech through my grand daughter's presence and action. God showed them the joy and the blessing that they will receive and God gave them something to hope for on that day their child is born.
All of this by the grace of God.
“And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary they knelt down and worshipped him.” Matthew 2:9-11
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8
“Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord.” Psalm 27:14
In asking for directions, receiving guidance, we find we can cling to hope and in hoping we are trusting God to act in His good timing.
The upside of the down.......
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