"Maybe this is God's way of saying I warned you with the last now this is your final warning."
"Maybe God means for them to stop"
"Maybe God's trying to tell them something..."
This week, Michelle Duggar and her family lost a loved one. She and her husband Jim were at their 20week ultrasound, typically called an anatomy scan when they were told that their baby had died and a heartbeat could no longer be found. 20 weeks into pregnancy, half way. But she'd probably been feeling the kicks for at least 2-4 weeks already. She, like any pregnant woman, had been talking to the baby as she stroked her stomach and I'm sure her husband and many of her 19 children were doing the same. How heart-breaking that must be.
People will be cynical and people will be harsh but when I read those comments I'm immediately taken back to when my husband and I were telling our family that we wouldn't be able to have children without IVF or something like that. Someone told us, trying to comfort us, that maybe that just meant that God didn't mean for us to be parents. I remember those words almost every day when I watch my son - who was conceived, miraculously, without any help from modern medicine. Who are we to even begin to try and guess what God meant or what God is "trying to tell" someone else.
Who are these people hurting? The Duggars? They made the decision, when they miscarried a baby because Michelle was taking birth control and didn't know she was pregnant, that they would not prevent pregnancy and let God decide when they would get pregnant. Did they take it to an extreme with 19? Um, probably. It would be for me, but I'm not them. They've raised those kids without government assistance - LONG before the TV show was around to help pay for things. They own businesses and manage their own bills and live a comfortable life. The kids are loved and appear to be happy. So again, who are we to criticize them? They have said that they prayed after their loss and felt this is what God was guiding them to do. If they still feel that way and are willing to take the risks - however irresponsible I might think that is - then that's new to them.
Long and short of it. Unless you are in fact God, shut up. You cant possibly know what life lesson I'm being taught when God says "no" to a prayer. It ties back to "if you cant say something nice..."
So to the Duggar's I say, I'm so sorry for your loss. And I stop there and hope they find comfort in God's love and in their large family that surrounds them still.
