This happened a few years ago, while I was still attending Bible school. One day, I was sitting in class waiting for my lecture to begin, the lecturer was running late which was very unlike him, and I did wonder what the issue might be. Eventually, when he showed up, he explained to us that he had been caught up in an emergency and proceeded to tell us what had transpired.

A young man, who was well known to everyone in the class because of the privileged position he occupied as a Personal Assistant to the General Overseer of the church the Bible school was affiliated to had just been arrested. We all gasped in horror! What had he done? We wondered, but before we could ask, the story continued. He had been stealing money by falsifying records and what was done in the dark for over a year had finally come to light. This was very shocking indeed as the young man did not seem capable of anything that had been said, but we also knew our lecturer was not the kind of man who would say such a thing about anyone unless it was true. As we tried to recover from the initial shock, another followed closely behind.

The young man had not been acting alone. The General Overseer had a beautiful young niece who lived with him. She was like a daughter to him as he had no daughters, only sons. He took very good care of her and lavished money on her. At the time, she was an undergraduate in a private university. Well, it seemed that somewhere along the line, the PA of the General Overseer had begun to date his beautiful young niece and introduced her to his sharp practices. They soon became a team or a crime duo like Bonnie and Clyde (I will talk about that another day). They stole together and falsified documents and figures to cover their tracks until they were caught, beginning with the young man. When he mentioned the role played by the General Overseer’s niece, no one believed him, but when they searched her room, large sums of money were recovered from under her mattress and inside her wardrobe. Needless to say, that she was also arrested. I never knew what became of her, but your guess is as good as mine.

The reason I share this story is that too many times, women throw away their lives in the name of love. What kind of love is that that sets you back instead of moving you forward? What kind of love is that that moves you from law-abiding citizen to criminal and sends you to jail or an early grave? What kind of love is that that sets you against members of your family? What kind of love causes you to drop out of school? Don’t be deceived; the right man will make your life better not worse. He will add value to you and not subtract value from you. Discern.