Lessons that can be learned from Robert Godwin, Sr.

by Steve Dunford 

More and more every day nothing surprises me.  The brutal murder that Steven Stephens posted on Facebook Live, was over the top and shocked me.

People Magazine Photo

Robert Godwin, Sr., a seventy-four year old man that was minding his own business, picking up aluminum cans for extra money, was murdered by Stevens in Cleveland OH.

I have watched several news clips, and read a few articles on this story today.  This is what I gathered. Mr. Godwin was a good man.  He loved his family.  He loved the Lord.  He would go out of his way to help anyone.

I am sure that was the last thing he thought would happen, when he left his house that day.

His daughter Tonya, when she saw the clip, said “it felt like her heart was ripped out of his chest” in an ABC exclusive interview tonight.  My heart goes out to the family.  I paused and said a little prayer for them.

I did some research on Ohio statutes.  Ohio Governor John Kasich, who ran for president as a liberal Republican, cancelled all executions in the state.  He put ten guidelines out there for the death penalty to be granted.  The best I could understand the complicated guidelines, this hideous crime will fall under them.

When I heard the news, I thought of four teenagers (I am at a lost for an adjective to describe their acts) who tortured another teenager in Chicago with autism a few months ago.  The crime recorded on Facebook Live also.

It sounds like Mr. Goodwin lived a good life.  You don’t know what is around the corner.  Live to be a good person every day.  Even though Mr. Goodwin life was taken at the hands of a killer, he left a legacy.

I lost my mom to lung cancer, thirteen years ago in June.  She died at the young age of 56.  There has not been one week that has went by that someone has told me the impact she left.

When she was going through the battle, Live Like you were Dying by Tim McGraw was popular.  She lived life to the fullest.  My first priority in life after loving the Lord with all my heart, second is live a daily life that will leave a legacy like Mr. Goodwin and my mother, Linda.

As I am typing this, there is a girl that I went to High School with that was in an automobile accident, and she is fighting for her life.  In the corner of my computer screen I received a message on Facebook of another girl I went to school with, found out she might have cancer.

Individuals like Stephen Stevens and the four that tortured the special needs young adult in Chicago, there is a  three word phrase in 2 Timothy 3:3 that comes to mind, “without natural affection.”  There are several things in society this partial bible verse can apply to.

Other than in self defense, I do not understand how one person can physically harm another.   My mouth has created some harm to others in the past.  You can not take back words.  I try to practice this now, but I fail a lot.  Pause and pray before you speak when things get controversial or heated.

Live your life every day like Mr. Godwin.  Be a good person, help your neighbor, be compassionate, kind, and tender.  Most of all, love the Lord with all your heart.

If you thought this was to grim, I apologize.  I am very green as a writer.  I have learned this lesson in the short time I have been one. If you have something burning on your fingers to say, it is meant to be said.

When you go to bed tonight, be thankful for the Lord giving you another day.  When the alarm goes off in the morning, be thankful that as good as hitting the snooze on the alarm clock feels, be excited about the potential opportunity another day brings.