SONYA CARSON: AN EXAMPLE OF SELF-BELIEF AND FAITH IN GOD

“Boys, you are wasting too much of your time in front of that television. You don’t get an education when staring at television all the time. I’d asked the lord for wisdom and he has told me what to do. From now on, you will not watch television, except for two preselected programs each week, and that will be after you might have done your homework. Furthermore, you don’t play outside after school, either, until you’ve done all your homework. In addition, you have to read two books from the library each week and when you finish reading them, you must write me a book report about the books. You are not living up to your potentials, and I am going to see that you do.” Sonya Carson tells her sons, Curtis and Benjamin. If there is anyone who will always believe in his/her ability to succeed and has faith in God, it is Sonya Carson. "Learn to do your best and God will do the rest” was her life motto. In spite of the hardships she passed through, having married at the young age of thirteen to a man who eventually deserted her and her two sons, she believed that she would eventually make it in life and determined her two sons would also succeed. Ben Carson would always attribute his success to his mother, Sonya. "I not only saw and felt the difference my mother made in my life; I am still living out that difference as a man." Says the renowned Neurosurgeon. Sonya Carson believed her sons could make it and she stirred up the gem in them. She put her total self into making sure her sons did their best in school. Oftentimes, she worked long hours and two to three jobs to keep the Carson family afloat. Her relationship and dependence on the Lord provided her with the wisdom to raise her boys to graduate from high school, college, and become successful men. She did this while living as a single mom in the interior cities of Boston and Detroit. "I don't have any friends. I don't have anyone else to turn to. God, you're going to have to be my friend, my best friend.  And, you're going to have to tell me how to do things and give me wisdom, because I don't know what to do” Sonya prays to God. She believed in God having accepted the gospel on the hospital bed. Sonya Carson was a woman of faith. My sons are going to be something. They are going to learn to be self-supporting and learn how to love other folks. And no matter what they decide to be, they are going to be the best in the world at it.” says Sonya to a woman who confronted her about her methods of child training. She loves her children. “Lord, if you can take nothing and make a world out of it, you can take my situation and make it work – for the boys’ sake.  I don’t care so much about myself, but my boys need help.  They deserve a chance.”  She has a saying; “You can do anything anyone else can do. Only you can do it better.” And she made her sons to believe it. Sonya Carson overcame hardship, poverty, single- motherhood, and depression to work hard to raise two sons in the inner cities. In turn, these boys grew up to be successful men, as she believed they would be, because she lived out her motto, "Learn to do your best. God will do the rest."