Changes

Drastic Changes

  Over this last weekend my wife and I had a few conversations about how we have drastically changed our family’s normal routine and life around the house. We also discussed some changes we would like to make within the home in the near future. For myself I can tell you that I am elated that all these changes revolve around God and the Church. I have listed below some of the changes that have been made and the ones that we are thinking about making here shortly.

    When my family and I started attending Church at First Baptist Church of Rosepine, it did not take long for us to make the decision that that was where we wanted to be. With that decision came our family’s first major change in the house. From the moment that we realized that was where we wanted to be spiritually, we made sure to revolve our schedules around God and the Church in every way. Our favorite days of the week quickly became Wednesday and Sunday. These are the days that we get to worship God with our Church body and see the people that we look forward to seeing all week. My wife and I were talking about it last night and it was definitely a conscious and deliberate decision to make, and believe me when I tell you it was not a hard one to make. In fact, when and if the occurrence happens that we are not able to attend ANY Church function, the sadness and sense of emptiness that is within us is almost sickening. We have both completely dedicated our lives to Christ and want to spend every minute glorifying Him.

   The second change that was made for us in the house was the decision to home school the children. We made this decision whole heartedly knowing that it was going to be a hard road to follow, but we made it to bring our family closer not only physically and emotionally, but also spiritually. We are able to have some quality one on one time with the kids involving their school work, not just a check the block thing that you get from doing homework with them. Even though the teaching is hard (mostly on my wife), there is a definite reward when one of your children unexpectedly says something in a public setting that shows that they are actually learning what you are teaching.

  One of the biggest changes our family has made is how we deal with all of our issues that come up in our lives now. We do not make any choices in our family anymore without first praying about it and following what is laid on our hearts. There have been opportunities here lately where I am definitely being tested and had I not taken a step back and prayed on the subject, I would have failed the tests. So we have definitely made it our priority to take a step back from all major decisions and pray about them as a family and seek His advice about what we should be doing.

   A major and drastic change that is coming in my house is going to be the limiting of the TV. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be one of the hardest changes to date since the TV has been burnt into our daily routine for so long. Starting tonight the kids and I are going to start the Bible in a Year program as part of our Bible study nightly. Hopefully this time will help to take away from the TV and help to teach my children more about the Lord and His Word. We will be reading together 4 chapters a night and I will do my best to teach them what they are reading. In addition we will really start to crack down on the amount of video games that they play, especially when it comes to Sunday’s. This day is a day for God and family so kids get ready to say Goodbye to your video systems.

   If you would have asked me a year ago if I would make these changes, I would have told you absolutely not. Now I couldn’t imagine our lives any other way. Everything in my life has gotten better since I found Christ and the Church and I guarantee that it will only get better. I am finding that the more of my life and vises that I give over to Christ the stronger my life gets and the love in my family gets stronger. If you haven’t made this leap yet I can only ask you WHY? What do you have to lose? It is not hard to say at all, I am a JESUS FREAK and I am proud of it. Thank you for reading and God Bless.

G.E.D.D.

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Good Day

Feeling Spiritual

                Let me tell you what, my day has started off awesome so far. I woke up at 4:45am for work and took my shower to get ready. Had my normal morning coffee, which my wife made the flavored kind for me so that was a treat. Went to take my daily medicine and didn’t even take a look at the bottle of Percocet that is still in my cabinet. Took the dogs out to go to the bathroom, made my lunch for the day, and got into the car to come to work.

                The best part of all this is the actual drive to work. I finally had the chance to put in the CD that John Ogle had lent me this last Sunday at service, and let me tell you, I am spiritually jacked up right now. That was some awesome worship music that I had the privilege to listen to on my way to work. I always listen to Christian music of some sort on the way to work, but today for some reason it felt different. It might be that I have finally rid myself of a poison from my system, or the fact that I sat through an awesome Wednesday night bible study, but it just felt different somehow.

                I am truly hoping that this feeling of peace stays with me throughout the day so I will get home from work and be able to enjoy the time with my family. I do know that if it starts to go away I will definitely be looking to my bible for a little guidance and peace. This week is almost over for me even though this was just my first day back to work, and Sunday is fast approaching (YAY). I can’t wait for the weekend to get here there are some good things going on for me this weekend. On Saturday I have a men’s fellowship night which has been promised to be a night of some serious JESUS LOVING followed by Sunday’s day of worship, lunch with our pastor’s family, and AWANA. What more could you ask for in a weekend? Well hope all have as good a day as I am having, thank you for reading and God Bless.

G.E.D.D.

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Addiction

A Week to Test Resolve

            Ok so this week has been one that I have decided to test my resolve and ask the Lord for a lot, and I mean a lot of support. I have also asked my wife to be patient and supportive of the decision that I had made on Monday since she is my main support line. I have also looked inside myself to make sure that I would have the courage and strength to make it through the decision I made.

            This weekend I had talked to a few people at Church to include my pastor and had been throwing around the idea of stopping taking my pain medication that I have been on for almost 2 years now. Now mind you, this decision does not come easy. I know that the medication that I have been taking is not just something that you are supposed to be able to quit with no consequences. For one the pain is going to come back in my hips and back and that is not something that I am looking forward to. In addition the drug I have been on is Percocet which is a synthetic Opiate which main ingredient is Oxycodone. I already knew from personal experience when I had run out before that you do experience DT and withdraw symptoms like you would when an alcoholic or heroine user does when they stop using. My wife was extremely apprehensive when I told her on Monday that I was stopping taking the medication. There was no further I could wean myself off since I was already taking the lowest dose that I was able to go so it was time to just stop taking it.

            Well day 1 wasn’t so bad. True that the pain had started to come back, but thanks to my wife keeping me busy with painting the house most of the day, it wasn’t something that I noticed until later on in the day. I didn’t have any tremors or sweats to speak of so that was also good, and I was in an overall good mood. I only had to take one nap for about an hour throughout the day when I started feeling not so good.

            Day 2 started off a little rocky. I woke up groggy and really stiff with a lot of pain in my hips and back. I took a couple Tylenol and my Cymbalta which helps with the pain by blocking the nerve receptors and started about my day. I could feel the difference today though because I had no energy and I wasn’t really with it. I did experience a point today in which I had to go and lay down for about 4 hours and I started to get the sweats and really didn’t feel well, but with the support of Shannon and through prayers I was able to wake up from the nap feeling pretty good and going the rest of the night without incident. My wife did make a trip to the store to get some Aleve to counter some of the arthritic pain that I am feeling and I believe this helped out as well.

            Day 3 has started off pretty good. This is where I was a total mess last time and couldn’t take it anymore. Not so much pain so far this morning and I am feeling pretty good. As pastor Greg had told me, it might be bad on day 2 or 3 but what if you push on, what would day 4, 5, and 6 bring. I will endure whatever is to come and I will find out. I think that if I can make it through today then I should be home free with no issues. This will be one of the many addictions in my life that I have let go since I have accepted Christ and to me this is one of the most important ones to let go from my life. Living on painkillers is no way to live. The dependency that you have to them is really life wrecking and also helps to destroy your body which is definitely something I do not need. So for all those that have known me, I am now free of Alcohol, Harmful Video Games, and the Percocet. So look out world here comes a new me. Thank you for reading and God Bless.

G.E.D.D.

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