"God has a sense of ironic justice. To rid Jacob of his deceitful nature, God placed Jacob under Laban, a worse deceiver. To show me how insensitive and in fact merciless at times I had been to the weak, God placed me ‘under’ upset and – from my point of view – unforgiving brothers who would not give me any mercy or the benefit of the doubt, though I felt I had done so much for them through the years. I felt humiliated through shame and exasperated to the point of considering leaving the Lord. I learned that mercy expressed through kindness, forgiveness and gentleness – was not only God’s way to encourage and strengthen the weak, but the only path to keep a movement together. In all of these trials, my dear wife exemplified how one should love the weak by staying at my side with unconditional love."