Before I can fall asleep each night I limit what I watch on TV or what I read.

I don’t do violence, I don’t do gore and I sometimes turn off a TV show if it’s unsettling.

To wrap up each day I need something worthwhile, something soothing.

Ever since I found the William Paul Young series called “Restoring the Shack,” I found something suitable for my late night viewing. Each part of the series is short, sometimes only 20 or 30 minutes but it often feeds my soul. It gives me something to think about right before I fall asleep.

Last night I watched the episode on forgiveness.

As many of you probably know “The Shack” is about forgiving what seems unforgivable.

What many don’t know is that the story in Young’s book was influenced by a true-life event - the kidnapping and brutal murder of 7-year-old Susie Jaeger.

The child’s parents, Marietta and Bill Jaeger, had planned what they called “a once in a lifetime” dream vacation camping for a month in Montana with their five children.

On the second night at a campground Susie and three of her brothers and sisters were snuggled in sleeping bags at the back of the tent while their parents were using the camper-truck.

When the parents went into the tent to say goodnight, little Susie wrapped her arms around her mother and kissed her before settling back in her sleeping bag.

It was to be the last time they saw their daughter.

Sometime during the night someone had cut a hole in the back of the tent and had taken Susie.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation took over the search that was joined by hundreds of volunteers. But no trace of the child and no clues were found.

After a year of a nationwide search and stories in newspapers throughout the country, an AP reporter did a story on how the family was surviving. He marveled that in the most trying of circumstances Marietta didn’t lose her faith nor did she condemn the kidnapper.

While she had raged against the killer when it first happened, she said as Jesus helped her find peace in her heart it softened her thoughts about the kidnapper.

“I guess I feel sorry for him. Anyone who could do a thing like that can’t be happy,” she told the reporter.

The kidnapper had read what she said. He couldn’t resist calling her on the anniversary of Susie’s kidnapping. Not content to have killed her child, he wanted to torment and bait Marietta.

Unbelievably, she was filled with compassion toward the killer.

How could that be? How could she feel compassion for the man who had killed her daughter?

She credits the Lord who continued to give her strength and to guide her.

At one point during her phone conversation with the killer he broke down, sobbing in anguish.

“I was grateful to know some part of his spirit abhorred the act he had committed,” she said.

She claims a strong sense of peace and trust in God replaced the rage in her heart.

Because she remained calm in talking with the kidnapper she kept him on the line and the FBI uncovered clues pointing to a man named David who lived in a town close to the campground where the abduction took place.

But it took longer to establish proof. It was in subsequent phone calls to Marietta that David revealed enough to incriminate himself.

He was arrested and charged with the murder of Susie as well as another 18-year-old victim.

He accepted a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid the death penalty in exchange for a full confession.

He confessed to the murder of Susie, an 18-year-old and two young boys, allowing authorities to find the remains on an abandoned ranch.

A few hours after his confession, he committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.

After they buried their daughter’s remains Marietta’s grief was overwhelming. But she said she was comforted by the God she loves.

“God’s idea of justice is not punishment but restoration,” she said.

Many of us still wonder how she could have forgiven the kidnapper.

“On my own, I would never have desired to forgive David, yet alone work toward it. But with the spirit of God living within me, I was able not only to forgive David but to love him,” she says.

Marietta Jaeger relocated to my community and is a member of my church. I talked with her for hours, trying to understand her forgiving spirit.

After writing the book, “The Lost Child,” she has been invited time and again to speak to audiences near and far about forgiveness.

“Vengeance, hatred, resentment, grudge-bearing, even deliberate indifference, are death-dealing spirits that will take our lives as surely as Susie’s was taken,” she says.

“They will destroy us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.”

That’s the message she continues to bring to audiences.

“Don’t be concerned about how you would feel if your own child was kidnapped,” she says.

“While we may never be faced with a kidnapped child, we need to be concerned about areas of our life where we are kidnapped by an unforgiving spirit.”

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net