Return of the Prodigal
by Diane Hale
There she sat behind the counter, now the owner of her own store -- preacher’s
kid and prodigal daughter, ex-felon and drug addict. Pregnant at sixteen and
refusing to marry the father of her child, she “moved in” with the man she loved.
Three years later when she was married and had another child, God began to
speak to Sonya through her dreams about His second coming. Fearful of being
“left behind,” she turned to God and He heard her cry. Sonya’s journey had just
begun.
“I was blessed. My life became the fairy tale I had always hoped for until one day
I walked in on my best friend in bed with my husband. My life crumbled. To me
everything became a lie and to cover the pain I began to drink. I soon became
‘super mom.’ Numb to the pain of my crumbled world, I began living two separate lives. During the day I was full-time mom and housewife; at night I became
the ‘dealer.’ Totally lost, I wandered down the path to meth until I was so deep
into drugs I lost everything, including my kids. Oblivious to everything, I gave
myself to the ‘game’ of selling and using. I was arrested more times than I can
remember. In and out of jail, until finally with four felonies against me, I was
facing 30 years to life. Again God intervened: after serving nine months in jail
and sixteen months in rehab, I was free.
“Even so, I could not change my life until one day I woke up after a six day binge
in a house with no water and no electricity, with holes in the floor and with no
heat. I was starving and I thought, ‘I’m no better than anyone else…but I’m better than this.’ I wanted to get out; yet I did not quite know how.
“Some months passed and, through a man I was later to marry, I heard the voice
of my earthly father speaking the word of God. It pierced my rock hard heart
and I began the long journey back. My love note from the Lord came through
Jeremiah 29:11-13: ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the
Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you
will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will
seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.’
“God has taught me a lot through this walk and the best thing is that I can trust
Him. I now have five children, own my home and a car, and have my own business. Only God could make these things happen. He has not just restored me;
He has remade me. When I felt unlovable, the God of my daddy became my God.
He became my personal savior, not just the God my dad preached and taught me
about. “
Sonya is now the owner of Addison’s Attic in Tate Georgia. Her husband also
owns his own business and together they are parenting their children in the ways
of God. He restored her dreams, hopes and relationship with her older children.
Now, by God’s amazing grace, she has the lif