Pastors Pen

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of them all?"

The murder-for-hire case from several years ago of Beth Carpenter is a stark reminder of the heated emotions that can rise in a custody battle. Ms. Carpenter, who plotted the crime against her brother-in-law, was the aunt of her then 2 year old niece. Her motive for killing him was she felt that she and her parents were losing custody of her sister and her niece as long as they were with him. Apparently, Ms. Carpenter was attempting to do what the court would not allow her to do: take possession of this child. As a lawyer who deals with family law, I have seen firsthand how vociferous a battle over children can become. I even had to intervene in a physical fight that erupted in an elevator. Such is our sad state of affairs.

Much of the problem stems from the fact that we operate on a mistaken presumption: That people and things belong to us, and therefore we have some self-given privilege to take control. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing belongs to us. Not our children. Not our spouses. Not our houses or our money. Everything belongs to God.

If we kept in mind this sacred truth, I believe we would go to God in prayer much more often. We would return to Him our tithes and offerings. We would return our children to God, as Samuel's mother, Hannah, vowed to "give him unto the Lord" I Samuel 1.11. We would recognize that even we are not our own, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." I Corinthian 6:20.