Dear Trae,
I hope you are doing well, staying strong and avoiding the path that took you down the last time.
The battle you face with addiction is a tough one, but remember who has the strength to overcome it, 'God...' His strength is enough for every temptation.
We tend to focus on the temptation, truly trying with all that is within us to stay free. We put everything we've got into our fight to the extent that it is all we see... but remember to look up... God is waiting with hands outstretched to lift you above it.
(Insert: some may disagree with me, but in one form or another I believe we all struggle with addictions. Some are more destructive visually, and others that are not visible.)
My Dad, your Great Grandpa George, was one example of overcoming addiction. Dad was an alcoholic from his youth. He told of his memories of being given alcohol from the time he was four years of age... and he continued to drink heavily into young adulthood.
At seventeen Dad joined the Army, and after two years received an honorable discharge, and six months later he joined the Navy. He said that during that six months he never took a sober breath.
Many stories of those years were of a life viewed through a haze of alcoholism, and Dad was continually getting worse. Then one night, when Dad was twenty-five he and Mom walked into a Pentecostal church and God filled them with the Holy Ghost. From that night until his death, forty-five years later, Dad never drank again.
I love you and am thankful for the kindhearted young man that you are. If there was a way I could keep you from the heartache and pain, I would. But it isn't possible. The important thing is to allow God to help you rise above it. Don't let the pain define who you are.
You are a good man who has lost his way, but YOUR WAY is not lost.... God knows right where you are and He is waiting for you to recognize that He is there for you.
I love you so much, and my heart hurts to see you hurting and struggling.. but I believe in you.... that your courage, your inner strength, and your faith in God will lead you in the right path.
Love, Grandmother
If we focus on His strength, our weakness becomes invisible... It can be easy to do that occasionally, but then our focus goes back to our weakness. So daily we need to refocus on Him.
I love the portion of scripture from the KJV Bible in 2 Corinthians 12 that I have heard throughout my life,
but The Message Bible says it in our daily language... Apostle Paul talking, "Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."
It is all a matter of our focus...
