Monday’s Mantra

Everyone Needs Hope

Thanks for joining me for Monday’s Mantra and Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power and Trench Classes United. I found this true story from over a year ago and I thought it was perfect to re-share it as it goes hand in hand with our upcoming class on learning how to live fueled with hope and free from anger. After all, everyone needs hope…at least the Author of Hope! Grab your coffee and come on in for a break from it all.

Last year, I met a young girl who I don’t think I’ll ever forget. She’s young, pretty, and looked so sweet, and still a little innocent. As I was setting up my machine and laptop, my client came in and was talking to the girl’s attorney and I heard the words “coroner’s report.” My heart skipped a beat when I realized what she had said. It meant we were going to be doing a wrongful death case.

The two attorneys walked out of the conference room, and I did something that I almost NEVER do – and am certainly not allowed to do. I began to ask her questions about the case. OMG, did I get an earful. I kept watching to see if the attorneys were going to come in because it doesn’t look so good for the witness to be telling the court reporter all about the case before we’re even on the record.

Her eyes welled up as she explained that they were in a drive-thru after a party, “and I’d been drinking,” she paused, “too much,” she admitted, and one of the guys in their car had slapped the guy driving who was at that time her boyfriend, and he turned around to slap him back. When he did that, he took his foot off the brake. In three seconds, they bumped the car in front of them. Well, this girl knew the people in that car so she got out and they talked. They agreed to get their food and get out of the drive-thru and then they’d pull over and work it out. She got back in her car, thinking it was all going to be okay… until one of the guys in the car that had been hit got out and came toward her car and began to take pictures with his cell phone.

Well that pushed the wrong button in her and she got out and pushed the guy. When her then boyfriend saw this go on, he got out of the car and came toward the guy she was pushing, intent on protecting her and intimidating this other guy. The guy she was pushing was about five-five and her boyfriend/protector was six-four. He hauled off and hit him a few times, and smaller guy falls to the ground. That caused the fight or flight response and they took off.

Two days later, the police show up on their doorstep – she was living with this guy – and they arrest him, and take her in and interrogate her for almost five hours – it took so long because she lied to protect him. To make that long story short, at the end of the interrogation, another officer comes in and informs her she’s under arrest for the murder of….

She’s released out on bail awaiting trial, goes thru the trial and is taken back into custody shortly after giving birth to a baby girl. She spent eight months doing hard time in County Jail, all because she fell for the wrong guy, drank way too much at a party, and just like that, her life is changed forever. The father of her child is now serving a nine-year sentence, but that will never bring this other guy back to life.

I can only imagine how the mother of the boy who died must feel. So much pain caused without rhyme or reason.

I sat there, speechless after she recounted it all. I checked the hallway again anxiously and begin to share with her that no matter how bad things looked, that God could take it and make it into something beautiful later on, if she would let Him. Her tears started flowing again. I said, “I’m not just here as a court reporter; I’m here to encourage you.” I went on to share a couple of my own tragedies, and though I have never been a part of a manslaughter-type crime, I went on to assure her that He uses all things in the tapestry of our life, weaving them together into something beautiful like only He could do. We just need to believe and accept His love for us.

I heard the attorneys approaching and I quickly gave her a favorite promise of mine: “He will restore what the locusts have stolen, that time you lost while serving time.”

This incident reiterates for me that there are so many people out there in need of hope today, no matter what they’ve done. Hope changes our direction and a changed direction means a changed life.

Have a great Monday and if you know of anyone in need of hope, pass this along and let them know of our upcoming class.

Blessings

Evinda