Trusting...the Lesson Must Be Taught Over and Over It Seems

Fretting and praying over my husband's lost hat for the past nearly 8 weeks has been a good set up for praying over our son's lost money in the rental scam.  

After all we have been through with loss in many forms in this family you would think we could have relaxed more over something as simple as a lost hat, despite all the reasons it was a very special hat to my husband, but for some reason we (I in particular) had to go through the lesson once again.  

I admit I was not praying about the hat's return with any "feeling" of faith that we would actually see it again.  I was praying with a sense of hopelessness, anger at us both for forgetting it in a restaurant, a feeling of betrayal that it had subsequently been taken and wishing that if the darned hat was gone for good, the wait staff at the restaurant would quit calling and getting our hopes up for no reason, that I could let it go, forget about it and stop fretting over it.  I was not praying in faith that God could bring something good from it.  I couldn't seem to let the whole thing go and that added to my upset.  The worst part was I know it wasn't only the OCD that was responsible for my not being able to emotionally drop the issue...I really was mad about what seemed to be some game going on among the staff at the restaurant in regard to the hat.  Feeling "betrayed" or "lied to" or "left out of the REAL situation" bothered me far worse than losing the hat.  

So, God had to get my attention by returning the hat as soon as I FINALLY gave it all up to him and let the upset go completely.  He had to get my attention so that I could pray  for my son,  actually believing that good will come out of his present upset instead of fretting and driving myself crazy over this loss that is far greater than a simple black fedora.  I cannot take on my son's hurt, I have to let him deal with this issue as best he can without making myself crazy.  He is a grown man with his own faith. He is quite capable of praying in faith for help and I have to support him in that instead of taking on anger, fear, feelings of betrayal on his behalf.  I need to resurrect my trust in God to know what is best even in the midst of messes. It isn't like I haven't had 40 years of experience with financial messes, and watching God fix them, to draw on. 

With the return of the hat that seemed forever lost firmly in mind, I was able to release my son's situation to God,  fall asleep last night and have 5 solid hours before waking up...hungry...I forgot to eat my bedtime snack.  hahaha 

Now it is time to fall asleep again for the rest of the night.  I know I will fall asleep because of the peace I have about my son's eventual outcome of his situation.  He is turning it over to God and so I must do that too.  The thing he and I both know is that God can turn this to good even if the process and whatever lessons are to be learned all start off painfully.

Thank you Lord for my son...please protect himself and the other tenants from the fellow who scammed them all.  Please turn the heart of the scammer toward truth and repentence and please let all these tenants forgive him for what he did to them.  Please help them all financially during this process that will likely involve the courts and even more likely no return of their money if the fellow responsible has spent it all.  Please use this incident to remind my son, as I had to be reminded with my husband's lost hat, that  learning to trust you is more important than the return of any "thing" that has been taken from him.