I was at Bible Study last night when for some reason my Brother in Christ, Jonathan, pointed out a verse in 2 Peter to me. We were talking about how we had backslid. The Bible study had taken a break over the holidays and we both had been skating on thin ice when it came to being in the Word of God.

The verse he pointed out to me had a different effect on me than it had on him. The verse was:

2 Peter ¹⁹For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

This verse brought me back to a time in my life when I was going through a custody fight for my two sons. They were 14 and 16 years old. Their Dad had moved to Florida to start living with the woman who would become his third wife.

He was aware that the Florida education system was far superior to what we have in Texas. He persuaded my sons after a year and a half of conversations to agree to live with him.

I may have not had much of a problem with them going to live with their Dad if I felt as if he was a fully competent parent. In most ways he had proven to be very competent. When he was married to his second wife he had paid a small amount of child support to me but he rarely missed a payment. He also demanded to take the children every weekend until they refused to go over because their friends were in my part of town.

At the time I thought he was supervising my children fairly well. As they have gotten older and become more honest I have doubted some of his parenting skills. Nonetheless, my children are remarkable young adults and I give him part credit.

When he moved to Florida, things changed. We had always been friends when he was married to his second wife. It was different with his third wife. It may have been more because he moved away from the children than because of her, but something changed.

He had moved down there to help her with her business and pretty soon my child support checks stopped. The arrears kept getting larger and larger until it approached 10 grand. This is a man who thought he was responsible enough to supervise my two teenage sons?

He claimed the business was going bad. Yet in  court Discovery someone from his family was shopping at Bloomingdale’s on a regular basis and dropping a grand each time they entered the store.

It didn’t add up.

My attorneys filed a motion to put him in jail for 10 days. Instead of going to jail he walked out of the courtroom with the custody of my two sons. Furthermore, they petitioned that I would pay much more for child support for two children than he had ever paid for three children. I have figured out how much he should have paid me and if I would have gotten what I deserved I would be $250,000 richer.

That was a lot to swallow for a woman who had always tried to be an excellent Mom. I was in no way perfect but I tried to love my children in the best way I knew how.

On top of all of this, there was many hateful emails coming from the third wife. I tried as hard as I could not to respond in the same manner. My mother told me I should fight back. I told her I couldn’t. I had to do what was right because in the midst of evil my flickering light may be the only thing which could crack the veil of darkness.

This was a crazy and wicked experience which I survived by drawing close to my God. It defied all reasoning. My children did not say one word against me in the court chambers, yet the Judge ripped them away from me. Without my God, I don’t know how I would have gotten through this. Yet, because of my God, I have deep and loving relationships with all of my children.

My sons have explained to me that it was all about the educational system in Florida. I understand that. I have even begun to understand that their Dad’s harsh demeanor may be one of the reasons why they both got into good colleges. He was amazing at pushing them out the door once they were eighteen years old.

I, on the other hand, always have left my door open for them to walk back into my home, as well as my heart.

For those of you who are going through hell in family court I know that it is unjust and unfair. I know that good is punished and evil is rewarded.

What are you to do when the world is upside down?

Continue to do the right thing.

This is greater than the insane judges and the incompetent attorneys.

This truly may be more about God and the devil than you ever imagined.

Doing right is always choosing God over the devil even when you may be considered a criminal for doing so.

This post is dedicated to an unnamed friend who is currently in hiding for the protection of her children.