A Night in Jail.

Last week ate dinner with a new friend of ours. For now, we’ll call him Anthony. During our meal he opened up to us about the past year and an eye-opening trial that changed his life. 

After a fun night with his friends, Anthony was pulled over for drinking and driving. He spent the weekend in jail, and said, “I wanted to cry in there. I was with a bunch of gangsters - this wast me. But honestly, being in jail wasn’t as bad as leaving it. I walked out to see a teary-eyed mother. I asked the officer if I could go back in. I couldn't face her. He just laughed and said my family was here to pick me up. I was broken…. My mother was broken. I let her down. I let my family down.”

We listened to Anthony’s every word. He spoke of family, respect, love and forgiveness. He fully accepted his consequences and never blamed anyone for what he did. It was his choice, but it wasn’t his last choice, and he was determined to start a new year off in a positive direction, one that involves honoring his family name.

After Anthony left, we thought about his story, his terrible experience, but more than that his humility and willingness to change. He said one thing in particular that we thought was pretty wise, 

“Ya know, sometimes hard things happen to us, because we need that reminder to get back on track and change directions a bit. It’s sad it works like that, but this next time I’m going to try harder so that it won’t be like that, so I can always remember to honor the most important things in my life, no matter the effort it takes.”

It was an enlightening night. His story inspired us to be a little better, to put others before ourselves and choose our faith, our family and our friends above anything else.