The parents were heartbroken when their young adopted daughter died in an unusual accident. She suffocated when the drawstring of the hood on her jacket became caught in a playground slide. They learned later that she was not the first child to die this way. Design flaws in both the clothing and the slide made this an accident waiting to happen.

Some people might have seen in this tragedy an opportunity for a lucrative lawsuit against two big corporations. But the parents refused to sue. In a television interview, the mother said they would have seen any remuneration as "blood money." She and her husband knew that the leaders of the companies involved never intended their products to harm anyone. So the parents appealed to the clothing and slide manufacturers to correct the problems that led to the death of their daughter. Both firms took immediate action. The mother is now leading a crusade to promote child safety.

While I acknowledge that it is not always wrong to sue, I was moved by the choice of those parents to follow the pure, peaceable, and gentle way (Jas. 3:17). What an impact we would make in our society if all of us who profess to believe on Jesus would follow their example!  — Herbert Vander Lugt