Published: July 12, 2008 07:00 pm            

FLASHPOINT: Lemonade stand theft story symbolizes important ideal

Young girl had faith she was doing proper thing

I’ve given thought and prayer to the question of why my daughter, Dominique Morefield, and her lemonade stand partners were so much a focus during a recent week in Terre Haute and throughout the country.

We have been inundated with phone calls and visits from TV news programs, radio programs, and talk shows from around the area and across the country, and have found her name mentioned in Canada, Germany and other places on the Internet. It has been a thrilling time for Dominique and her friends, and for parents, grandparents and friends of the lemonade stand children. But in all the hype, wordplay, laughter and excitement that has occurred, I do not want to be unmindful of the ideal symbolized by this story.

I believe it goes back to the Word of God, where a boy named David saw that his people were being oppressed by a mocking giant named Goliath. He saw a situation where the size and the tenacity of the adversary were not the issue, but the fact that evil needed to be confronted and stopped. With this in mind, he saw himself as the one to do the job. Of course no one else saw it that way, and amidst doubt on the part of everyone around and with only the reluctant consent of the king, David prevailed — with a rock and a slingshot.

Why? I would suggest because David’s consideration of his adversaries' imposing stature did not factor in. It was said of David that it was not the job of a boy to do such a formidable task, just like many said that Dominique could have been hurt and that it was not the wisest thing for her to have chased after that great big man (her father, myself, her grandmother and the 911 operator all said this, too).

But Dominique saw what needed to be done, and did it, without considering her adversary’s size or apparent strength, or considering worrying whether she was really the one meant to do it. This is the stuff that heroes are made of — not strength or stamina or intelligence — but faith, a simple belief in the desired outcome.

Let me digress to the Thursday prior to lemonade stand robbery. I was walking through my dining room when, out of the corner of my eye I caught a spot on the carpet. I bent down to touch it and found that it was a coin. I picked it up and on it read, “I will bless those that bless you. … Genesis 12:3.”

I turned it over and it appeared to be written in Hebrew on the other side. Even then, to me, it was an affirmation of God’s promise to me and mine. I went to everyone in the house, asking each of my children if they knew where it came from. None of them knew anything of it, so I saved it and went about my business. I later looked up the remainder of the verse that the ellipsis on the coin represented: “… and the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

I kept the verse in my consciousness for a couple of days, before I stored it in my memory and ceased to think about it. It was not until I was contemplating the contrast between Dominique’s good fortune and Mr. Tryon’s extreme bad fortune for stealing from my child and her friends that the verse on the coin came to mind again. When it hit me, I knew in my spirit that Monday’s event was why I found the coin.

My Dominique belongs to God (by her own confession of faith) and the coin to me was a confirmation that she was meant to be blessed to accomplish the job that was done on June 9 — with her trusty cell phone as her weapon of choice.

Through resounding responses from around the world to Dominique’s “instinctual” (as she put it) reaction to right the wrong that was done, and the resulting infamy of a young man who had no idea who he was dealing with when he decided to pick on those he perceived as weaker than himself, God has confirmed to me that He does indeed “bless those that bless [His people] and curse those that curse [His people]” and also, that in His people, everyone is blessed.

The beautiful thing about it is that Steve Tryon has the opportunity to choose to make a change. He doesn’t have to be a Goliath, destined to be cursed and remembered everywhere he goes as a bully and a thief who was felled by a child. He can be like Saul was: formerly an oppressor but transformed into Paul, whose eyes were opened and who became a blessing. Paul is now remembered for the great saint that he was, not for the murders he once committed.

Mr. Tryon CAN live this down. He can look at this experience as one that woke him up early. He can transform this episode in his life from his worst nightmare to the time when the scales fell off his eyes and he made a complete turnaround. And who knows that just “such a time as this” was not created for his betterment?

All it takes is a little bit of faith.

Thank you to the officers of the Terre Haute Police Department who took these children seriously. Thank you to the many local media entities, and particularly WTHI, and Mix FM, who have brought attention to our children’s story. Thank you to all who encouraged and supported Dominique, Fred, Libby, and Taylor in their lemonade enterprise this past week. I know they have enjoyed love and support beyond their wildest imaginations in these recent days.

— Jackie Mitchell

Terre Haute

        

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