Pregnancy

by Pastor Dan Miller

^{Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Dan Miller’s book Spiritual Reflections}
She was a young, single college student: no money, no husband, no children. Yet her hands nearly quivered with delight as she held at arm’s length the several pieces of a white, crocheted set of clothes designed for an infant girl. Meticulously handcrafted, these delicate treasures proved simply irresistible. She quickly purchased the set—matching bonnet, booties, sweater and blanket—and had them wrapped for safe-keeping.

She had no immediate plans to bear a child, just an innocent dream that she would someday know the joy of dressing an infant daughter. With light heart and a twinkle of hope in her eye, she brought her purchase to her dorm room and placed it in her Hope Chest. It remained there for a very long time.

A Hope Chest stores treasures that symbolize one’s dreams. Tangible items are tucked away in such a chest with keen hope that the future will play out so as to permit their use. But sometimes a Hope Chest becomes a casket where dreams are buried.

She graduated from college, and before the crocheted treasures were much more than a year old, she married her college sweetheart. A few years passed. Then the happily married couple decided the time had come to have children. With confident expectation they pursued their dream of raising a family. But God had a different agenda.

There was a painful miscarriage, then another. Tears were shed. Fervent prayers were offered. Friends and doctors were consulted. But another miscarriage was suffered, then two more. The last one threatened her life.
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by Joe Roof

Ministering to Women With Pregnancy Problems

Successful pregnancies do not come easily in growing numbers of Christian homes today. The problem leaves a lot of godly women in our churches hurting and a lot of other godly women wondering how to minister to the hurting. It’s hard to describe the hurt a woman feels when she longs to have a child and learns that there is no pregnancy month after month or that she has had a miscarriage. Sometimes there is no medical explanation.

At other times, husbands and wives are given the news that having a child will be nothing short of a miraculous act of God. While the hurting couple rejoice in the news of other pregnancies in the church, they struggle to understand why God is allowing this difficulty in their lives. I can still remember my wife, Kim, and I counseling a promiscuous 14-year-old about her pregnancy and the trouble she was having with the 12-year-old father. Kim had just experienced her first of four miscarriages, and we went home that night wondering “why” and shedding many tears before the Lord.

Many miscarriages take place during the first trimester when the deceased child has no name. When miscarriage takes place, many believers feel awkward in knowing how to respond. In the days following the miscarriage, most women overcome the awkwardness and offer prayers, flowers, cards, food, and words of comfort. These expressions of love are greatly used of the Lord. In the weeks following the miscarriage, some women who suffer miscarriage are still hurting inside. Other believers may be tempted to feel that these hurting women should just “get over it,” but their recovery is often not as easy as that.
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