How God Redeemed My Teen Pregnancy

“I’m pregnant.”

Would you know what to do if your teenage daughter made that announcement? It’s not a pleasant situation to think about. But it’s the moment of truth for you as a parent. How you react sets the tone of your relationship with your child moving forward.

When you first hear the news, you’ll feel like the floor has dropped out from beneath your family. It’s a scary, uncertain time for you and for your daughter.

The shock is perhaps especially jolting if you are a Christian parent who has been actively engaged in your children’s lives and who feel they’ve “done all the right things.” You know you’re not a perfect parent, but you’re reeling from the realization that your child has turned away from important principles she’s been taught.

Scarlet and Lindsay, mother and daughter, went through those same fires when Lindsay became pregnant as a senior in high school. Scarlet and her husband, Brad, had striven to fill their household with love, support, and faith.

Lindsay herself says she grew up in a seemingly perfect family and had the all the cards for success stacked in her favor. But she was hiding a secret.

Their story begins with an unplanned pregnancy and ends with a young woman’s bravery. Also key was a family who believed God was encouraging them to adopt a precious little girl.

Scarlet, Lindsay, and Bethany, the adoptive mother, are all with us on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “How God Redeemed My Teen Pregnancy” to share their powerful and emotional story. Along the way, you’ll hear how to get your own wits about you enough to come alongside your daughter with compassion and grace.

Their story was one of our most popular broadcasts of 2020, and you can hear it on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or take us with you on our free phone app.

You can also read their story in the book they’ve co-written called Joy Will Come: Exchange Shame for Redemption. I’d like to offer you a copy for a gift of any amount. When you help Focus on the Family today, your donation will be doubled for twice the impact in helping others through this ministry. Our thanks to generous donors who’ve made that possible. Visit our website for more information.

In the meantime, if you’re a teenager who has discovered you’re pregnant, or a parent whose son or daughter has announced an unplanned pregnancy, reach out to us. The number during business hours is 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459). Leave your name and number, and one of our counselors will get back with you just as soon as possible. We’ll help you to move forward without shame and restore relationships that may have been broken along the way.

Stories like Scarlet’s, Lindsay’s, and Bethany’s are why the work pregnancy resource centers are doing to save babies and to minister to their mothers is so important. Focus supports these centers through our Option Ultrasound program, which provides grants for sonogram training and technology. To date, more than 800 ultrasound machines have been placed around the country, and nearly 465,665 babies have been saved.

With that in mind, I’d like to extend an invitation for you to become a special partner with us through our monthly “Friends of Focus on the Family” program. What’s amazing is that it only takes $60 to save a baby’s life by providing ultrasound machines and additional resources.

Thank you for touching others with the love of Christ.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5).