A tribute to moms on Mother’s Day
A
devotion beyond measure
by
Lisa Hall-Wilson
As staff
writer for Teen Challenge Canada, I have the privilege of
hearing miraculous stories of healing and mercy. We serve a
great and mighty God, and His deliverance and redemption is
immeasurable.
Drugs and
alcohol drive people to lengths and acts which they swore
they’d never sink to. The first ones they hurt are their
families: Addicts lie, steal, threaten, and manipulate. And
yet, as their sons sank deeper into addiction, these mothers
never gave up. Many of the young men who graduate the one
year Teen Challenge drug and alcohol rehab program, credit a
mother’s prayer and persistence as a commodity beyond worth.
Steve, a
twenty year drug use veteran, has survived five overdoses,
gang life, amputation, police raids and operating a crack
house. His mother, Gail watched the son she’d raised on her
own sink deeper into addiction. "I just felt sick. I had no
idea what to do. I was at my wits end, and I didn’t know
where to turn."
One of
Steve’s most humbling moments was having his mother pull him
from a crack house to meet his first grandchild. Gail prayed
for a sober moment with her son and kept a Teen Challenge
application package in her car.
Gail refused
to give up. She called, but Steve refused to speak with her.
She showed up at his door and refused to leave. Steve smiles
at the memory, "She was not leaving until she talked to me.
I’d been up for days, was belligerent, but Mum wasn’t going
to take no for an answer."
Then she
received the kind of call all mothers dread. "Steve didn’t
come out and say he was going to kill himself, but I had
that petrified feeling in my gut he was going to do it. He
was at his wits end." She convinced him to come home
instead. Gail remembers, "I knew what he needed right then –
he needed to be loved." Steve entered Teen Challenge shortly
after that.
Helen Rice
said, "A mother’s love is patient and forgiving when all
others are forsaking, it never fails or falters, even though
the heart is breaking."
Sheila had a
similar experience with drugs and her youngest son, Justin.
"I couldn’t watch him self-destruct in front of my eyes. I
kicked him out and said come back when you’re ready [to
quit]."
Justin
returned four months later and said, "I need help."
Sheila’s
response to Justin arriving on her doorstep after being gone
for months, after being lied to, stolen from, and threatened
by her youngest son?
"I didn’t
even think about. He walked in like the prodigal son. He was
dirty, scratched, had injection marks all over him. I just
thought Jesus, he’s finally back."
Justin
entered Teen Challenge.
Eleanor
Roosevelt once said, " A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t
tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."
These two
mothers, and many other Teen Challenge mothers, this year
are celebrating Mother’s Day with the sons they feared were
forever lost to drugs and alcohol.
Steve smiles
every time he speaks of his mother, "Mum was gonna fight for
me. Maybe a lot of parents wouldn’t go that far, but God
bless her for that."
For more
information on Teen Challenge, and how you can get involved
please visit their website at
www.TeenChallenge.ca.
