If we are lucky there will be times in our lives where we are stopped in our tracks and offered an opportunity to re-evaluate how we will spend the rest of it. Something will happen either good or bad that will change our way of thinking of relationships and responsibilities. In those moments we have a choice, we can either continue to do things as we always have or we can adjust and tweak everything to give deeper meaning to our time here on earth. This past weekend was one of these moments for me. My team and I were working a catering event in a historic home in a downtown district. This particular home had two porches, one in the front and one on the side. We were hired to cater a private party and for half of the evening all was well. My nine year old had accompanied my husband and I as she sometimes does. She saw her father talking to someone on the side porch and asked me to go see what was going on, naturally I went. On that porch was a woman who appeared to be disheveled and perhaps under the influence of drugs. My husband went back in to the house and I asked the woman if everything was alright, no she replied. I then asked her if I could pray for her and she accepted. I asked if she was hungry and would like to have a meal, and she did. I prayed for and I fed her. On several occasions she asked to come in to the home and we could not honor this request as this was a private party. She later let herself in to the house and requested to speak to me. She was slightly irritated and with one hand behind her back she summoned me to come closer to her. I took one step and she turned her back father away from me with her hand securely behind her back. It was clear that behind her back was something that would be used to cause me harm. She summoned me again to step closer to her. The holy spirit came over me like a blanket laced with fear and caused me to back up without making even the slightest turn. With 4 steps back I was out of her reach. My husband was able to escort her on to the porch and locked the door. She remained outside banging on the windows attempting to get in. In an instant I began to look for cupboards in the kitchen to hide my daughter in, they were full. The only thing that I could do was place her in to a corner away from all windows should bullets begin to fly. The police were called and this woman was arrested in less than 2 minutes of the officer’s arrival. In the moments that we waited for the police, so many thoughts ran through my head. Do I text our other children and tell them how much we love them? As I looked in to the face of my nine year old daughter who was sitting in a corner as I had instructed her, I told her how much I loved her and that Mommy would never let anything happen to her. I looked in to that little face hiding in fear for herself and her mommy and in that moment I changed. Nothing else mattered but my love for God and my family. I have been through moments in my life that have changed me but none such as this. As I reflect back on that evening I realized that I had two choices; one, to continue living the way that I always had being upset by minutia or two, letting it all go and loving others more deeply and richly. This life is fleeting and so precious. We are given one chance at this and we must live in such a way that God is glorified and pleased with us. We must love others as if we may not be here one more day and we must forgive ourselves and those who wish us ill.