"Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desires of his foes." (Psalm 41:1-2)

I remember years ago, while I was still in grade school, of my promise that I had made with God; that if He would help me, that I would help out all others who God would put in my path. So here I was, a freshman in high school, walking with a friend of mine around the block that I lived on. Suddenly you could hear someone screaming and yelling for help. It seemed like all the neighbors whom were watching did not want to get involved. You could hear the sickening sound of the air forcefully being knocked out of the woman's stomach from the man who was savagely hitting her. All the while she was screaming, "He's going to kill me!"

In the two different times that I had tried to help two different women by telling the men to stop, both women literally turned on me; one of the women told me to mind my own business. (After he stopped beating on her)

"Never pay back evil for evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honest clear through." (Romans 12:17)

And the other women was even kind enough to take her middle finger to show me that I was number one in her book, making the man who just moments ago who was beating her senseless like a rag doll feel like he should be rewarded with a trophy for "Citizen of the year."

And in the two different times after getting involved to help the woman, they would then smile and take the man by the hand and walk back into the house, even though I had ring-side seats to watch the next round in their freak show. I was not going to stick around to see the beginning of round two.

I learned first hand why a police officers life is in danger when responding to a domestic dispute, there have been many unfortunate and tragic incidents where the woman who has called the police for help and when they stop the assualt on them, the woman physically turns on the police officer because they did not want their loved one go to jail.

God's way is for us to praise God that the police came and stopped the assault from escalating to even more violence and for cooler heads to prevail. To have complete faith in God that He will turn this into a blessing, than you must believe that He is in charge. Allow the police officers and other human resources do their job that God has created for them to do. And sort all this out after things have calmed down. Show respect, dignity and mercy for those God sends in your life to keep the peace and He will bless you for it.

"God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (Matthew 5:7)

God believes in you

Reverend Michael Cartwright