Testimony of Healing December 27, 1999 Issue

Drug addiction overcome through prayer

Sarah W. Sonke with contributions from Melissa Sonke

I used to believe that drugs (including alcohol) have a destructive power; that nothing could be done to prevent the effects of drugs from permeating schools, destroying families, filling prisons, and bringing decay to relationships, communities, and society. I don't believe that anymore, because I have discovered that God has all power—is the only power.

My two daughters have enjoyed attending the Christian Science Sunday School. During their teen years, we would often discuss drugs together as a family, and I felt confident in their freedom from being attracted to this enslaving habit. But at the same time, when I would see other young people succumb, I would often accept the problem as real, label the child as a drug-user, and brush the whole thing off by finding a cause or excuse for it such as, "Those parents have always given their children a lot of freedom, and look where that kind of parenting leads." That kind of self-righteous thinking blinded me to a problem developing in my own home.

One daughter was not able to resist the peer pressure to try drugs and became completely taken in by the lure. She is an intelligent girl, and it seemed impossible that this could happen to her. She became withdrawn, she lied, denied there was any problem, and became friends with others whose only common bond seemed to be an interest in drugs and in the dark way of living that goes along with that lifestyle.

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