In this powerful episode of Lessons From Living, Beth Graham sits down with Dawn Ward, a mother who has experienced addiction in her family through two very different journeys. Dawn shares how her childhood experiences with her father’s alcoholism shaped the way she responded when her own sons struggled with addiction.
Dawn opens up about the fear, hypervigilance, control, and guilt that can consume parents when a child is struggling. She also shares how her faith helped her move from trying to fix everything herself toward surrender, trust, grace, and allowing God to work in her children’s lives.
This honest conversation explores addiction, parenting, faith, forgiveness, healthy boundaries, and the difficult process of learning that a parent’s success cannot always be measured by a child’s outcome. Dawn’s story offers hope and encouragement to parents who are walking through circumstances they cannot control.
Lessons From Living Podcast with Beth Graham, LessonsFromLiving.net
Episode Outline
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0:00 – Dawn’s Journey and the Birth of Her Ministry
Dawn shares how the Holy Spirit prompted her to tell her family’s story and eventually led her to create a ministry supporting mothers whose children are struggling with addiction. -
6:00 – Growing Up With Addiction
Dawn reflects on living with her father’s alcoholism and how, as a child, she learned to become protective, hypervigilant, and focused on keeping peace within her family. -
12:00 – When Her Sons Began Struggling With Addiction
Dawn explains how her two sons experienced addiction in very different ways and how their circumstances, choices, health, and support systems shaped their journeys. -
18:00 – The Pressure to Fix Everything
Dawn describes how her childhood role as a protector carried into motherhood, leading her to research constantly, try to control circumstances, and feel responsible for finding the solution. -
25:00 – Fear, Faith, and the Struggle With Surrender
The conversation explores why parents can feel overwhelmed by fear when a child is struggling and how Dawn learned that anxiety does not mean she has failed in her faith. -
32:00 – Learning to Let Go of Control
Dawn shares how she realized that trying to control her son’s recovery was keeping her from trusting God and allowing Him to work in her children’s lives. -
39:00 – Grace Instead of Guilt
Dawn explains how receiving God’s grace helped her stop measuring herself by her children’s outcomes and begin extending that same grace to herself. -
46:00 – Healthy Boundaries With Adult Children
Dawn discusses learning to step back, stop trying to fix every problem, and allow her adult children to make their own choices and experience the consequences of those choices. -
53:00 – Finding Strength in Community
Dawn emphasizes the importance of finding people who understand what families facing addiction are experiencing and who can provide prayer, encouragement, and support without judgment. -
1:00:00 – Trusting God With the Outcome
Dawn reflects on the ongoing process of surrender and learning that God remains at work even when parents cannot see or control what happens next.
Best Quotes from the Podcast
“You’re gonna worry yourself to death.”
– Steve Ward
“No, I want it to say, ‘She trusted God.’”
– Dawn Ward
“Every time I lay it down, every time I lay down some heavy expectation I have of myself or my children and I let go, I find so much more peace.”
– Dawn Ward
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