A Grandmother at age 29?

In this article from the Quad City Times, we are introduced to Celia, age 15, and her 1-day-old little boy, Russell. Celia's mother, Leticia, gave birth at the even-younger age of 13, while in the 7th grade.

The happier side of this story is that there exists an entity in Davenport, IA, called the Brighter Futures Maternity Home. Celia spent the last six months of her pregnancy there (in part because of her mother's anger) and developed beneficial relationships with the staff. Thankfully, she did not choose to abort her son.

The harsh reality is that she is a 15-year-old single mother, and Leticia is a grandmother at 29—with three younger children below the age of ten. Neither is married to the father of her child, and statistically, it is highly unlikely that this will ever occur. Leticia stays home with the younger children. Celia has returned to high school and wants to play basketball.

There are so many family issues here that I will not even try to list or analyze them, but one fact stood out to me in this article....Leticia "always urged Celia to tell her if she was having sex so she could arrange birth control for her." [Celia didn't tell her until she became pregnant.] This is the wrong approach. Leticia's responsibility can be summed up in two things:

1. Model sexual purity to her daughter.
2. Teach the inestimable value of sexual purity to her daughter.

She clearly did neither. Her husband (if there ever was a husband) is not mentioned in the article, and yet her youngest child is a year older than her grandson.

The alert Christian recognizes that a mother's teaching responsibility extends further than those two points, and includes prayer for her children.