A Leap of Faith

When my son first told me he wanted to buy a new car and that he'd need a co-signer, I have to admit I was quite reluctant to do so. With my precarious financial situation and without any promising job prospects on the horizon, I knew that if my son ever had any trouble making his car payment, I'd not be able to take over the payments. I knew that if this happened, the car would be repossessed, leaving my credit in shambles.

It wasn't that I didn't trust my son to take his responsibility seriously. I knew that he would; he's matured greatly over the last few years. He's been recently hired at a new company at a decent starting salary and will get regular scheduled raises for the first year or two, that will make the car easier to pay for over time. He'd also been on his previous job for six years, which shows great stability.

Unlike many single people his age, he doesn't go clubbing each weekend, nor does he drink or do drugs. He's avoided getting himself into credit trouble, declining every credit card offer made to him. Nor has he ever gotten into any trouble with the law.

My major concern was with the financial health of his new employer. In our uncertain economy, it's not an uncommon thing for a company to go out of business, so the possibility of my son's employer going belly-up was largely behind my reluctance to be a co-signer.

Nevertheless, I took a leap of faith and signed the papers for my son's car anyway.

Later, after it was all said and done, he came up to me and hugged me. "Thank you for trusting me," he said. "I love you."

At that moment, my misgivings vanished and I knew it would be all right. I could almost sense my father looking on in approval from the afterlife. Until that moment, I hadn't known how important it was to my son for me to believe in him in this way.

Thoughts?