When I Lay My Isaac Down

April 26, 2004
When the phone call came at 12:35 a.m., a bleary-eyed Kent listened as her husband passed on the unbelievable news that their son, a United States Naval Academy graduate and Navy lieutenant, had shot and killed his wife's ex-husband. During those first few hours after receiving the harrowing news, major decisions, both legal and financial, needed to be made quickly. So began the Kents' two-and-a-half-year journey that led to the trial, conviction and sentencing of their son for first-degree murder. Kent (Tame Your Fears
; Becoming a Woman of Influence;
Secret Longings of the Heart
), whose position as President of Speak Up Speaker Services made her the family's primary breadwinner, had no option but to continue working and speaking throughout this ordeal. She wondered if people would even want her as a speaker if they knew she was the mother of a murderer. Using a biblical story from Genesis 22 where God asked Abraham to literally "lay down his Isaac" as a sacrifice and then intervened at the last moment, Kent prayed for a similar miraculous outcome for her son. She shares her story with a transparency and vulnerability that readers will find both disarming and bracing. The Kent family's ongoing fight against despair and hopelessness is fittingly paired with their resolute faith in God's ability to transform even the most crushing circumstances into something good.