Mother’s Day Message - She Glorifies the Lord

All of that seemed like a sin and a shame, especially as we approached senior year and Bee didn’t participate in any of the requisite, important events such as homecoming, the parties and ultimately, prom.  She did attend commencement and Kenni was sitting in the audience watching her mom receive her diploma and she’d later witness Bee receive both an undergraduate and graduate degree.

Years have passed since those days and I had the privilege of sharing my observations of Bee with Kenni during a chance department store reunion.  To her credit, Bee raised Kenni to be confident, competent and wise.  Kenni is a teacher and a licensed hairdresser, and she is in graduate school.  Moreover, Bee raised Kenni in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  The baby doll that use to straddle her mommy’s hip is now in ministry - single, childless and waiting for God’s man. 

Kenni wants to be married before having children and I’m not mad at her for that – neither is Bee.  Bee, in fact, is proud of her daughter and grateful to God.

The beauty of Kenni and Bee’s story is that neither allowed and will not allow the circumstances of Kenni’s birth to dictate the course of their destinies or the direction their lives have taken. 

So what if two teens experimenting sexually became parents during a time when it was not considered commonplace to have a baby out of wedlock.  So what if her parents never married one another. 

Something special happened inside of Bee and Kenni’s hearts that enabled them both to move past their circumstances to embrace God’s plan for their lives.  God said that Kenni had a future and a hope and if it took two teens to bring her here, then so be it.  God said that Bee had a future and hope and if it took the birth of Kenni to draw her to it, then so be it.

The debate on teen motherhood is long and wide.  We condemn and we condone it.  Yet at the end of the day the babies born through these mothers have the same future and hope as Kenni and even children born in wedlock.  At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter if a child comes here as the product of a relationship out of wedlock, in wedlock, as an unplanned pregnancy, a planned pregnancy, the product of rape or abuse and in poverty.