The Gift of Life....The Tragedy of Death

As parents, we will spend the next several decades of our lives working to protect our children from harm, keep them grounded in faith and love, and teach them that life is the most precious, valuable gift.

I cannot begin to imagine the feelings that a parent must feel at the loss of his/her own child. I cannot imagine, even further, how it would feel to have your child take his own life.

Last night, we were startled awake by the sound of screams, sirens, and chaos on our street. A peek out the front window yielded a scary sight...6 police cars, fire trucks, ambulances...and then a teenage boy brought out on a stretcher. That boy is no longer a part of our world.

As the story goes, he took his own life by shotgun during a game of Russian Roulette. What must go through a father's head to come home to the sights and sounds of a tragedy which involved your child.

I pray for the family and for the boy, that he has some peace now that must have been missing from his life before.

And tonight, I will hug my daughter tighter and say a special prayer for our growing baby and pray that they both will value life and always know peace in their world.