Christian Living

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Where's The Love?
© 2005
by

Stephen A. Peterson


After talking with Karen and Mel, I thought they would be crushed when their 19 year old daughter, Jessica, dropped out of college in her sophomore year. I was surprised when Karen said, “Me and Mel talked about Jessica and we decided not to jump in and try to rescue her from herself and convince her to stay in college. At first, we thought about talking to you and the college provost to convince her to stay in school. Then we prayed and it occurred to us that God might want our daughter to have to deal with the consequences of her decision and work through it on her own.”

Jessica enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and eventually sent to Iraq where her duty was helping to build hospitals, schools and to teach English to Iraqi children. Jessica learned how to discipline herself, to continue on when she was a little tired, and to take direct orders under difficult situations. When she returned home from her tour of duty, Jessica said, “being in Iraq showed me the freedoms, liberties and opportunities I have available to me in the State of Oklahoma and the United States. I learned that I was richly blessed. I also learned how much my mom and dad love me by not trying to force me not to go in the Marines.”

Talking to the college chancellor and the chairman of the department she had been a student, Jessica’s grades were mostly C’s and D’s with an overall grade point average that was a D+. Jessica deliberately chose some of the most difficult, challenging course totaling 21 credit hours. According to her parents, they would have been more than satisfied with a C average. To everyone’s surprise, except Jessica’s, she completed three semesters of nothing but straight A’s.

I recently talked with Jessica. She desires to complete her Bachelor’s degree then go on to obtain her Master’s in mathematics and chemistry. She is entertaining thoughts of perhaps becoming a medical doctor or a dentist. Jessica also stated a desire to someday return to Iraq for a time to attend to the children and families she met and came to know and love. She daily thanks God, the United States Marine Corp and her parents who demonstrated their love for her and allowed her to learn about life and living.

We have all heard it. That is, that sometimes to love is to let go. If the love one or thing returns, then the love was and will grow and flourish!!

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