I. update

Things didn't go well in Louisiana and so he is back home. Monday night after work I drove to louisiana after a short econolodge night in Canton Mississippi. I met Dad who brought I. to Jonesville, Louisiana. We connected and started back up to Nashville. Hearts so burdened for him and yet we feel we must let him go. We are really praying about how to make this work, but we aren't going to provide him a car, cel, money, or a room without a real change of heart. It's such a difficult thing to see a kid, that is loved so much by so many diferent people turn away. He knows he has broken the contract we set up now three times, he wasn't able to abide by the house rules in Louisiana and so with a heavy heart we are waiting for his next move. If he stays, as laid out in the contract, he'll have no car or cel phone, no job for a long time and so there is not very much to keep him at the house. Almost any treatment program or school has to be his choice and he refuses to choose help so he will get a dose of reality. And we will continue to trust in the Lord, leaning not in our own understanding.

Tonight he'll be at church. We ask that somehow God will move in his heart. He needs it so badly. Lord, let it be.

Comments

[[rhymes with kerouac]]

Still praying.

It's tough - I know it is - but it sounds like there is much wisdom in your decisions also.

[Matt Tullos]

Thanks RWK,

My brain says it's right my heart's not there yet. all we can do at this point is hold our ground and pray.

[Jeanne Sherrill]

Matt:
I have stumbled across your blog in search of other things...and actually realized that I had called your home several weeks ago about a new Sunday School at ClearView.

Stay the course.
God is faithful.
I haven't read all what is going on, but this is going to be his senior year, and he has to be totally scared.

I say that because your entry feels like what we've gone through with our 22 year old. Put him in Donelson Christian Academy because he started making poor choices at Mt. Juliet Jr. High. OK for several years. He then decided that his jr. and sr. years were a joke and that discussions of Christianity yielded mindless answers and smothering legalisms. He is intellectually gifted, but his salvation as a ten year old has been put on the back burner for worship of perfectionism and self.

Bottom line. He has whiffed two years at Cornell, after trying to go for almost 4 years. Has a signficant substance abuse problem...same issues.He is angry with His Maker,is running away from His Maker. He finally admitted this past Thanksgiving that he wasn't ready for college, but didn't have the courage to say so or a plan to do something different in the meantime.

Plenty more to the story. We told him that we are no longer paying for college and that his adult decision making now means no more moving back home inbetween semesters.He is now in Murfreesboro stewing, and crawling in the path to brokenness. I wish we did that two years ago. The firey furnance is still blazing.

My prayers will now always be with Isaac and you and your family each time I lift up Andrew into God's arms each day.

jcs

[Matt Tullos]

Thanks Jeanne for sharing your story I covanent with you to pray for Andrew. I believe that one day he will be like the disciple Andrew, leading people to Jesus and challenging them to come and see.

[john]

Hey Bro., this is one of those times when I stand there looking at my shoes wishing I had something smart or deep or helpful to say. It is like those funerals I go to when a hundred people have already said sorry and then ask if there is anything they can do. You wait in line to talk to them, touch their shoulder and say...sorry...is there anything I can do...

[Matt Tullos]

Thanks John. Prayer is all we can do and we are seeing some glimmer of sunlight through this trial. I love you, bro.