On my way to lunch with "the gals" I was listening to Dr. Charles Stanley tell of a man who had owned a flourishing business, had had a wonderful family and had owned a large home but was now driving a taxi, living in a one room efficiency because he had lost everything. He had begun drinking, oh, just a social drink now and then at first but it didn't take long for alcohol to take over his life. Alcohol had become first in his life to the neglect of everything else-his business, his family, his home. How sad.
I hope addictions have not impacted your family as it has mine. There have been several drug related deaths, loss of jobs-homes-self respect, loss of family, children uprooted and being raised by people other than their parents, distancing among family members, traffic violations, incarceration, loss of driving privileges, fines, fees-it goes on and on and the road out is a long hard one.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Isaiah 1:5-6
Most tragic is the affect on the children involved-being raised by others than your parents, the embarrassment of everyone knowing what is going on. Not having nice things like your friends. The sad part is that so many of their friends are in the same condition with absentee parents. Absentee doesn't mean just physically gone, it also means spiritually and mentally. It means children having to fend for themselves.
With all this, I have no sympathy with addictions after seeing the impact on those children and the rest of the family that has to pick up the pieces and keep things going. They don't have the luxury of copping out the way the addict has and it is a cop-out, a selfishness, a self centered mind set to get that next fix no matter what the cost to those around them.
My take on addiction is that it is a choice, not a disease and not genetic. There may be a tendency in families towards weaknesses but in the long run it is a choice. God gave us a brain and a mind to choose how we will live our lives and everything we do affects everyone around us like a pebble thrown into a pond with radiating ripples.
14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days
1 Kings 3:14
The genetic argument was thrown at me over the phone by one of mine. It was what she was being taught at an alcohol half-way house after incarceration from DUIs. I told her if that was the case I was one of the biggest drug addict, alcoholics there is. Since she had never seen me take so much as a drink or smoke a cigarette, she was rather taken aback. I told her all 5 of my uncles were alcoholics and towards the end of Dad's life, he depended on alcohol to give him some relief, though temporary, from the emphysema that had him on oxygen 24/7. I had made the choice in my lifetime not to take my first drug or think that alcohol was a must for a good time. She told me I lived in denial [it is a good thing we were talking on the phone because if I could have gotten to her at that moment it might have been detrimental to her health].
I told her it wasn't denial if I chose every morning to get up and do the best I could without numbing myself to circumstances around me, and trust me there were circumstances, it was definitely a choice and not an excuse to excuse myself from life. Bad times may be a reason but it is no excuse.
Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it so don't give me that genetic, disease, poor little ol' me tommy rot. God gave us our brain and our mind and the freedom of choice-you are what you make of it because when or if you come out of that stupor, life is still there, problems are still there but on the other side of addiction, now they are probably much worse.
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chron 7:14
May God bless and keep you and all yours
Carolyn Wainscott
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