Second Verse

He told me later that he finally decided to honestly look at people in rehab who were happy and doing well and wanted what they had. He finally admitted to himself that his life was not working and there had to be a better way. Most successful rehab programs are built around the Twelve Steps of AA. It is said to be a spiritual progam, not a religious program. They are told that alcoholism/addiction is a disease of the mind and the body and that it is a spiritual sickness. Matt had a very skewed vision of who God was by this time -- it was hard for that little boy to separate Dad and God and inside that grown man the little boy was still very much alive. I'm not sure who, or what his Higher Power was at the beginning but I knew that God promised if we would search for Him we would find Him. So I prayed. I had scores and scores of other people praying. I claimed a victory long before I really believed it would happen. God had as much work to do in my heart as he did Matt's.

God kept showing up where Matt was - isn't it cool how He does that?? I don't know when it happened because he is, after all, of the male species and does not talk about feelings (ewwww!). Somewhere along the way though the wall that he'd built between himself and God was blown to smithereens and he accepted God's amazing grace. He met Him for perhaps the first time really.

The transformation has been a thing of beauty to behold. The clear eyes are back, the quiet chuckle, the servant heart -- he's become the person God had in mind when He first created him. He stood in church a while back and gave his testimony and it was all I could do to sit in that pew and smile. I'm telling you what I wanted to do was stand up and shout God heard our prayers!! Glory to God in the Highest. Hallelujah! Preach it, brother! Oh yeah. Those are the thoughts that were running rampant in my brain.

HOWEVER, being of the "let all things be done decently and in order" and "let the women keep silent..." brotherhood I smiled through tears --- looked around that large crowd that morning and saw tears running down a whole lot of cheeks and thanked God for restoring my boy. On October 17 he celebrated four years of continuous sobriety.

And he decided he wanted to practice the gift that God so obviously blessed him with - he is a natural born teacher - in a foreign land. He wants to see the world, experience cultures far different than the southern born culture that I tried hard to teach him was the ONLY culture. Oh, I jest. But I did think being native Texans was something my children should embrace. Instead they move to far off corners of the earth. Just like my son came back to the Lord, I'm thinking they can come back to Texas too.

And the church says Amen.