Prayer Request

Please pray for my cousin, Beth. Please pray also for her parents and her two fatherless children. She’s had a serious drug problem for several years, but still refuses to admit it. She has a habit of disappearing with “friends” every now and then only to show up days or weeks later, often drugged out of her mind. Her behavior has already traumatized her kids who, having been routinely abandoned for days at a time, now panic whenever they’re left alone in a room. Recently (within the past year or two, that is) her parents managed to acquire custody of her children and have since been raising them for her. This didn’t sit well with her, of course. Last December she vanished again, only to be discovered at the scene of a car accident shortly before Christmas. When she was picked up she was clothed in only a shirt–someone *else’s* shirt–and had smashed one of her vertebrae.

The doctors at the hospital she was delivered to tested her blood and found she had ingested a blend of alcohol and enough drugs to kill someone who hadn’t already developed a tolerance to such things. Her mother rushed to her side, only to wind up on the receiving end of her temper. Beth cursed her mother–who did not have the heart to stand up to her daughter’s harsh words–and blamed her for “stealing” her children. Last I heard Beth had disappeared again–presumably while still wearing the back-brace that the hospital gave her.

Perhaps more distressing than what’s happening to Beth is the effect her behavior is having on her family. Her parents have been torn to ribbons emotionally, and her children are old enough to recognize–if only vaguely–that something is wrong with their mother.

As I said, please pray for Beth, her parents, and her children. Heaven only knows the kind of hell they’re going through.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication:

If you, O Lord, mark iniquities,
Lord, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.

I trust in the Lord;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the Lord,
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the Lord;

For with the Lord is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

Father, rescue your daughter from the snares of hell for the sake of the most sorrowful passion of your Son Jesus Christ. Mother Mary, intercede for her and refuse to let her or anyone in this terrible situation be lost.