Be Still: Learning to Wait While God WorksSample

My name is Amy LaRue, and I was ten years into what I thought was a rock-solid marriage when I learned that my high school sweetheart, my husband, was addicted to alcohol.

You know what two words I did not want to hear during that time? BE STILL.

And to be honest, I wasn’t. I immediately went into “fix-it” mode. How am I going to fix this? What did I do to make Shane drink and how can I fix that, too?

But I never thought: If I am still, then God can fix it.

Well, I didn’t stay still. I searched the house, I checked his phone, I made appointments for him, I threatened him. I worried. I was fearful. I was determined to FIX this situation and I began to search and search and search Google for an answer. But you know what? Google couldn’t tell me how to fix this situation either.

I grew up in church. I was always very active and went to church every chance I could get. But if I am honest, I never really had a strong prayer life. I'd never experienced any MAJOR life events where I had to fully surrender to God to get me through.

Until addiction hit our family.

I knew I couldn’t do this on my own, even though I tried. This is when my prayer life really began.

It’s true that I was the one who prayed when life got hard… but not so much during the in-between. And honestly, I had a lot of “in-between.” But when addiction came, I cried out to God, “How can I do this for the rest of my life? Will I ever be happy again? I need you. I need YOU!”

When difficulties like addiction make their way into our families, it begins to control us. They tell us what to do, what not to do, how we should act, how we should not act, how we should feel, how we should not feel, where we should be, where we should not be. The list goes on.

Trials and storms want to drive us into hiding while we go into fix-it mode. We want to just fix everything so that we can show the world our perfect family once more. It’s easy to be fearful, like I was when things aren’t going well or when we face challenges and conflicts in our lives. But in Psalm 46:10, God reminds us that the only thing we need to DO is be still and know that he is God.

Get out your journal and answer these questions reflectively:

Can you identify with Amy’s story of addiction betraying her family? Why or why not? In what ways have you been blindsided? What did you do?

What sort of prayer life do you have? Are you content with it or would you like it to change? What practical steps can you take to make that change happen?

How easy is it for you to be still? Why do you suppose you feel that way? If you have trouble being still, what’s one step you can take to make it easier?