Polish your Shield

I feel the need express my gratitude to the life and example the LDS church provides for its members and the lifestyle it instills in our blood. The strength and standards the church helps to construct with in each of its members is a solid, protective shield that we has flawed humans, must continuously polish. I was reading a dreadfully sad article on KSL news today (see below) and at first I was so furious, it almost brought me to tears. Maybe it’s because I am a mother to be or just my pure love of the innocence of youth, but I couldn’t imagine the motive to do something as vile and evil as this mother. I hesitate to even call her a mother. She isn’t worthy of the respectable title. I didn’t move past my furry, but moreover a new emotion took over, gratitude. This woman had a lot of issues, not excuses, because her act was inexcusable, but her life wasn’t picturesque, as none of ours are. Her life makes me thankful for the word of wisdom and eternal families and marriage. The importance of chastity and how one simple mistake can change your life forever. If you are like me, I constantly have a 5 year plan, and the past 5 years have come out to be pretty close to what I had mapped out. One mistake and that plan could have been ruined. Now mistakes are made every day, by me and you, but the mistakes I am talking about are the life altering, consequential judgments that can throw your life into utter chaos. The straight and narrow isn’t always so straight for each of us. There are bumps and cracks along the way, but we can’t veer off of that uneven path after one of our mistakes, otherwise, the detour we take may be demoralizing to our lives and the lives around us.

Ohio mom gets life term in baby's microwave death
May 20th, 2011 @ 1:06pm
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio woman convicted of killing her month-old baby daughter in a microwave oven was spared the death penalty and sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman sentenced China Arnold, 31, of Dayton, who psychologists testified showed no signs of serious mental illness.
Arnold was convicted last week of aggravated murder by the same jury that recommended her punishment. Jurors deliberated about six hours Thursday and Friday.
Prosecutors say Arnold intentionally put 28-day-old Paris Talley in a microwave and turned it on after a fight with her boyfriend. The couple had argued over whether the boyfriend was the infant's biological father.
Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion argued that the evidence pointed as much to the boyfriend as it did to the child's mother, who Rion said was drunk at the time.
Medical experts testified that the baby died quickly after her temperature reached between 107 to 108 degrees Fahrenheit. They said she probably was in the microwave for more than two minutes.
"She died because she was overheated," said Dr. Marcella Fierro, retired chief medical examiner for Virginia. "She was cooked."
It was Arnold's third trial in her daughter's 2005 death. Her first trial ended in a mistrial when new witnesses surfaced just before closing arguments. Her second trial ended in a guilty verdict and a life sentence. But an appeals court overturned the conviction when it found prosecutorial misconduct and the trial judge erred in not allowing a relevant witness to testify.
The prosecutor's office had no immediate comment Friday. Rion did not immediately return a message left at his office. A gag order previously prevented anyone connected to the case from commenting outside court.
The sentencing phase was delayed earlier this week to allow time for a mental exam of Arnold. Two psychologists testified Thursday that Arnold was of average intelligence and showed no signs of serious mental illness.
Dr. Jeffrey Smalldon said Arnold suffered from a "low-grade chronic depressive condition" as well as alcohol and drug abuse. He said he found nothing "that would have justified the death of this child."
In arguing for the death sentence, Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Dan Brandt told the jury there were no factors that mitigate the "purposeful murder of baby Paris in that microwave."
Defense attorney Kevin Lennen said that death or life in prison would be a tough penalty, but death should go only to the worst offenders. He pointed to evidence that Arnold was drunk at the time of the baby's death.
(Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=157&sid=15400757