By our born-again nature, we as Christians are lovers of truth when you stop and think about it for a minute.

There’s truth with a lowercase “t” and then there’s truth with a capital “T”, the latter of which is found in the Gospel. This Good News should be our motivation to do good for those in need of help when it is within our power to lend a hand, even when it might be professionally troublesome or personally inconvenient.

As a journalist in the late 1980s, I received a phone call about a family named Squires, who had arrived in Clovis, N.M., population 35,000, within a rock’s throw of Cannon Air Force Base and a few miles from the Texas-New Mexico state line.

Penniless, foodless, jobless, homeless described this family of two parents and six or so children. The mom stopped by the state social services office. She asked and the agency agreed to “temporarily” house her two youngest children until they could get back on their feet. A local church helped the family secure a rental house, food, clothing and eventually jobs.

When time came to retrieve her children, the caseworker said she was an unfit mother, could not have her children back. This is when I began writing news stories for The Clovis News-Journal, after I had interviewed all sides in the case. While the social services agency expressed its displeasure with the newspaper articles and the ensuing ruckus, it never presented any reasons (on or off the record) to the parents or the media as to why these parents couldn’t have their two young children back once they were employed.

Sadly, the agency held firm to its decision, refusing to release the children for years.

The family and local Christians continued to speak out on behalf of what appeared to be an overzealous, overreaching bureaucracy splitting up a family, albeit a family of humble, but honest, hard-working means.

I continued writing stories for several years, with no seeming solution or justice in sight.

However, state politicians became aware of the situation and intervened, prompting the agency to eventually restore the two, now not quite so young children, back to their parents and other siblings.

While it was a privilege to have played a role in this family’s restoration, God deserves all the credit … for without Him gifting me with reporting abilities, a bit of sanctified stubbornness and the opportunity to love my neighbor as myself, I would not have been in a position to help. God is truly great … ask how you can serve Him, both today and after you graduate and begin your career with your God-given gifts and talents.