What we can learn from a pregnant teenager …

Go ahead: think it all, express it all, feel it all. Let it all out, God is a big god, He can handle it!

That’s what many church leaders teach congregations regarding responding to God when God acts in our lives in ways we really don’t like.

“God can handle your doubt, your anger,” they say, and thus encourage some poor — and wholly unhelpful — behavior from people.

How should we respond to God when God acts in an impacting way in our lives?

Should we be angry at Him?

Should we doubt Him?

Should we rebuke Him?

Should we school Him in what we really want from Him?

I think a better response might be learned from a teenage girl directly from the Christmas story.

Mary had dreams. She was in love with a handsome boy. A good boy who had all the makings of growing into a godly man. He had asked her to marry him, and she was already dreaming of their lives together, him working as a carpenter to care for their family, and her keeping house and nurturing their children.

God turned those plans upside down and, in the process, very nearly brought an end to the coming marriage before it happened. Now a pregnancy was in the scene before a wedding, and Joseph was planning on how to quietly end the engagement. This was nothing like a young girl’s dream for living happily ever after.

How did Mary respond?

She sang praise to God!

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
49 For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
50 He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
52 He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54 He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
55 For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.” “56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home,” Luke 1:46-56.
Instead of throwing a fit that God was ruining her “dream” and changing all her plans, she praised and worshiped Him; she trusted that He knew better than she did, even about her own life.Do you?How do you respond to God acting in your life? Who do you believe knows better for you? What can you learn from Mary’s example?Scotty