Chewing Furniture!

Situation:  Some years ago I had a neighbor couple who were childless after 17 years of marriage.  Veronica had mentioned, once, "Larry and I had really hoped to have a family but I guess it wasn't meant to be."  They both had good blue-collar jobs and a beautifully decorated home.  They took nice vacations and always had new cars.

Fast-forward two more years.  All of a sudden, Veronica was pregnant!  Larry was absolute thrilled!  Veronica was horrified.  "Why, oh why, me?" she whined, "I had my life all planned out.  Now this!"

The blessed event turned out to be a darling boy.  Larry was even more ecstatic.  Veronica came to appreciate all the attention from others admiring her new baby and was generally pleased with the little guy, pleased, that is, until he started crawling.  One fine summer day we saw Veronica come screaming out of their house, running toward Larry who was working in the yard.  "Larry, Larry, Larry, your son has chewed the leg on my dining room table!  It's ruined!  Everything is ruined!"

Larry smiled and calmly looked up at her and said, "Don't worry.  I can refinish the table legs later.  Don't get mad at the baby.  He's just teething."

Lessons learned:  Those who have sex should never be surprised at a pregnancy, even with all the conception control products used faithfully, even if either of the couple thinks he or she is infertile.  There's always a 'failure' rate (it's a 'success,' as far as the baby is concerned!).  One should 1) consider if the anticipated sexual 'partner' would make a good mother or father and 2) am I ready for the responsibility of a child?  If sex is casual, face it, both people are truly using each other for pleasure, total irresponsibility!

How many adults have you known who said that they were "oopsies" or "surprises" to their parents? Indeed, I think half of us would be missing if there were no surprise pregnancies!  So what?  Every child is a blessing.  The older the parents, in most cases, the more the child is treasured.

Outcome:  After that outburst, Veronica seemed to settle into motherhood and came to enjoy the young fellow.  But it was Larry that pushed him around the neighborhood every day in good weather.

Lord, sometimes it takes us a longer time and more heartaches before we learn the lessons we need to learn.  Thank you for being patient with us!  And thank you for each and every one of our precious children.  Help us be examples of love and patience to each other!