Let Go and Let God
Klara R., Tylertown, MS

Reprinted from: http://www.storybin.com

Being the mother of an alcoholic son has had its ups and downs, but as I look back I can see more of the ups than I can the downs. The most important one is that I joined Al-Anon, a group for families and friends of alcoholics and drug addicts. Going to meetings helped a lot, and one thing I kept hearing as I went was to Let Go and Let God take care of the problem. Finally I learned this the hard way.

My son had been sent to prison along with a friend of his for theft. They were to be there 3 years. The friend got to go into general population, but my son was put into solitary confinement. This bothered me a lot since they both were convicted of the same crime. Why, I wondered, was the punishment not the same?

I chewed on this for several weeks—arguing, complaining, and moaning to anyone who would listen.

One day I was mowing my grandmother's yard. Our lawn mower was an old one with the gas tank on the side, and I was continually catching it on limbs and pulling it off, but always without incident. This day was different. I was arguing with God about why my son was so mistreated, and why did I have to go through this pain, when I noticed that my gas tank had caught on a bush and was just hanging from the mower. At the very moment I noticed this, I also noticed that the mower had caught on fire.

I jumped off the mower, desperately looking for some way to put the fire out. At that moment, a neighbor drove by (keep in mind we live 12 miles from town). He spotted the problem and stopped his truck. He and a passenger jumped out, grabbed a cloth from the back of his truck and put the fire out. Once the mower cooled down, we put the gas tank back on, and it cranked right up.

As I continued the mowing, I thanked God for putting the fire out and for the lesson I had learned. The lesson was "If God cares enough to put out the little fires of my life, then He definitely will take care of the big fire in my life, which is my son." I simply needed to Let Go and Let God take care of it in His own way. I did just that. I did not worry another minute about my son being in solitary, and when he got home he said it was the best place he could have been.

Klara Reid: reidqrhs@netdoor.com