I watched the news about the tragic and needless school shooting in Texas from my Arizona home. Sadly, I witnessed a father, who was at work and heard of the school shooting at his daughter's school. Naturally, the father rushed to the school to find his daughter and discovered she was nowhere to be found. Now, he is waiting to see if she was one of the eighteen souls whose lives were unmercifully taken.

As a pastor and servant of God's people for nearly 30 years, I recognize that in the midst of this beautiful experience of life there is evil parking amongst us. It is for this reason, we must constantly pray and be on guard to protect our most precious and most vulnerable, which are our children. Jesus gave a warning to those who would harm our children when he said in Matthew 18:6, "But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in Me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea."

No one should be able to walk up to any school and take the lives of innocent, unarmed members of our community. It should not matter whether they are at a school, church or a grocery store. Our children and teachers deserve better than this. They should be protected while they learn and parents deserve the peace of mind that their children are safe at school. 

Let us now consider the journey that the victim's families, whose lives will never be the same, are now forced to face for the rest of their lives. Funerals, grief, fear, anger, and confession are the reality of their lost loved ones. Please kneel in prayer for them and ask God to comfort, heal and give them His grace in this time of their greatest need. 

I look forward to working with other legislators to make sure we create policies that will safeguard against these increasingly horrific and tragic incidents against our children. I am, as I am sure others are, waiting to see whether or not overly prescribed, hardcore pharmaceutical medications had anything to do with the young man who chose a path of violence yesterday. 2 Corinthians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Jerone Davison