PT

I know what follows will sound like one giant bit of overreaction on my part. But that's okay. They're my kids. I'm allowed to overreact.

My plan has always been to give my children the Lord's truth every time they pick up and toy around with the world's version.

Clay got off the school bus the other day and asked me a question, which I did not hear very well. I asked him to repeat himself and he said, "It doesn't matter. Just say 'yes'."

Okay.

I said "Yes."

And he just laughed.

Then he moved on to another topic, and I let the original question slide.

Later, when Bruce got home from work, Clay pulled the same thing on him. Only this time, I understood the whole thing.

"Dad, are you PT?"

Bruce said he didn't know what that meant. Again, Clay told him it didn't matter and that Dad should simply answer in the affirmative. Bruce complied. And, again, Clay doubled over in laughter. And then he elaborated.

"You're a Pregnant Teenager? Dad, you just said you're a pregnant teenager!"

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain, I recall laughing at that very same thing when I was a young girl. Older than Clay is now, but still young.

In light of recent news of teenage pacts to get pregnant, I wasn't laughing now.

I decided to dig a little bit.

"Hey, Clay. Why are you laughing? Do you think it would be fun to be a teenager who is pregnant?"

"Well, yeah!" he replied.

I was crushed.

Clay has been my questioning child since he was very young. We've read books recommended by Focus on the Family about sex and God's design for marriage first, babies later.

I didn't lecture him. That would have been more overboard than even I go. He was just being childish, after all. Because he is still a child.

But I asked him several pointed questions.

Things like, "How many married teenagers do you know?"

None.

"Doesn't God want us to wait until after we're married for that S-E-X stuff?"

That's what he calls it. And he spells it so his siblings won't know what we're discussing. Because I've told him that it's Mom and Dad's job to inform them about that sensitive topic, and not his. And since they haven't asked anything, they don't know anything.

Yeah.

"How much money do you think it takes to feed a baby?"

Lots.

"How many teenagers work full-time jobs that you know of?"

None.

"Do you think a pregnant teenager can afford a new baby?"

No.

"Who do you think watches the baby while the teenager goes to school?"

Her parents.

"So if it were your sister who had a baby as a teenager, that would be me and dad watching the baby while your sister tried to finish her education, right?"

Yeah.

"Do you think that's fair to me and dad?"

Uh. No?

"What if God had plans for you to become a missionary when you grow up and tell everyone about Jesus. And then you have a baby when you are a teenager. So you can't do that because you needed to take care of the baby. Wouldn't that be sad that you couldn't do the big thing God had planned for you? Or that you at least had to wait a very long time to do it? Until that baby was grown."

Yeah.

We talked a little more about how scared a young person would be to have to take care of a baby, maybe alone. And how some young mothers give their babies up for adoption because they just don't think they can do it. And how others are so scared they have abortions. (Yes, we went there. No details though.)

Overboard? Maybe.

But we were talking about something important. And even if it didn't all sink in, the next time he hears that silliness, he'll at least pause to reflect on a young pregnant teenager. And her fears. And her future.

And God's perfect plan.

To wait for that S-E-X stuff.