Share this with me.......

[toad]

I just shared this in Christians in Recovery, and wanted to share with you my brothers and sisters.......thanks.......toad

In Feb. 1983 I was doing time in jail for my 4th DWI. I had 90 days to do. I did not come from a Christian home, oh my parents believed in Jesus, but we never went to church except for the rare Easter experience. I knew very little about Jesus, Bible history, and the finished work of the cross. I came from an alcoholic home, my Dad died at age 51 because of alcoholism, my mom married a younger man and after a few years and he died at age 52 of alcoholism. My mother died of liver failure at the age of 58 due to alcoholism.

My dad gave me sips of his beer at the age of 2, at 3yrs old I had my own beer stine (still have, keep pencils in it), and any time I brought it to him he would fill er up. I don't know if I was born an alcoholic, but the first time I drank an alcoholic was born. From the age of 2 to 52 I continued to drink and use every drug that I possibly could. In the middle of my drinking/druging career I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. I could manage to get a little time sober, but always went back to drinking. What I needed (for myself) was the fellowship of AA and NA which gave me an opportunity to have someone work with me, and at the same time the opportunity for me to work with someone else, ain't that cool how we're all connected?

Back to the jail time...........as I sat in Leeds Farm K.C.Mo., an announce ment came over the intercom telling of a movie being shown in the visiting room. I decided to go. It was "A Distant Thunder" (about the tribulation period) I thought the movie was boring. After the move this prison guard named Smitty got up and gave his testamony. I noticed tears in Smitty's eyes as he showed the love of God that had been working through his life. I had been to Leeds Farm a coulple of times in years past, and knew Smitty, but had never seen this change in him. I knew right off the bat that what I needed in my life was what Smitty had, it was the Holy Ghost. I considered Smitty to be one of the bravest men I had ever seen, to stand in front of a bunch of thugs and cry honestly.

They had some Bibles to pass out and I wanted one. I remember coming close to getting into a fight to receive this Thing that gave Smitty his power. I started reading with the New Testament and found it difficult to believe. I made a decision that when I read something I could not believe I would fake it and go on just as if I had believed it. When the doubt was removed from the process of my reading and with Smitty's tears softening my heart, little by little I began to see God's plan unfolding. I don't know when it was exactly, but somewhere in the Gospels I started believing in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the finished work of the cross.

You know something? That didn't keep me sober, God loved me so much that He gave me free will, and I love "me" so much that I used it. For me it took the combination of reading the Word of God daily, practicing prayer and meditation daily, having a sponsor who could see through my crap, going to meeting, getting involved in service work, and working with others.

It's the God of your understanding, that's the bottom line in the program. Thanks for letting me share, God continues to do for me what I could not do for myself...................toad



P.S. .......... 5,000 miles on the Road King, changed the oil in the primary and transmission last week. Seems to shift a lot better and I can find neutral better. I think the dealer put too much oil in the primary at the 1000 mile check up. For me to know that things are done right, I guess I'll have to do it myself. Ain't that just like AA? No human power could change my oil for me, God could and would if He were sought, and God and me did it together.