I am a retired pastor. And you know what they say (or should say) about us retired pastors: “Once a pastor, always a pastor.”

Well, we pastors tend to be practical in our ministries. In fact, we Methodist pastors tend to be extremely practical in our ministries. So forgive me now for dispensing with niceties and for striving for loving directness.

What should you do about your recently discovered unplanned pregnancy? What approach should you take?

Please consider the following suggestions:

1. Peace be with you. Do not panic. Do not become hysterical—even if you feel like it. Do not make a snap decision. Stay near to your partner. Sit down. Set aside your phones. Look into each other’s eyes. Hold hands. Breathe deeply. Talk calmly. Listen deeply to each other.
2. Go together to a church sanctuary. Then pray to God. Promise to worship God there on the Sunday mornings to come. Receiving Holy Communion, you can experience that Christ gave His Body and Blood for you and yours, so that you and yours may truly live.
3. Remember that “You shall not kill.” (Exodus 20:13, RSV) God commands respect for those He has created and is creating.
4. Recognize God’s providence for you and all around you. Consider God’s care for you through the years. Today you do not have to feverishly plan your lives so that they will turn out just like you desire. You need not control your lives. That kind of control is an exhausting, overwhelming, impossible job. That kind of control saps your lives of thankfully recalling that God provides for you, even when crises intrude. What God provides will surprise you, and cause you to wonder and to give thanks.
5. When making a difficult decision, take the most demanding way. Why? Because the most demanding way invites you to lean more on God.
6. Rejoice in His grace. His grace helps you to decide. His grace leads you to do what is most difficult. His grace prompts you to love the least. His grace strengthens you to love and protect your little one. His grace changes your lives for the good.
7. When the sun rises the morning after you have decided to welcome your baby into this world, receive the new day as a gift. Live it to the fullest—without a second thought, without burden, without regret, without fear, and with great gratitude. Now you know what true freedom is.