⇑   There’s nowhere to go from here except UP! ⇑

Who would have thought that three months ago while writing my first blog I could consider myself as a “non-smoker”…

I had been not smoking for  three days at the time. What is really neat is that I am still not smoking; I now consider myself a “non-smoker”!! Let me tell you the story from the beginning and the reason that I have the picture of the plaque as my header.

I have tried on many occasions to quit smoking cigars, yes, cigars!  I started smoking the pipe tobacco cigars for fun back in 2003. That fun lasted twelve years as the worst addiction I ever had in my fifty-three years of life on this earth.. inhaling not just puffing.

So, on this particular day, September 6th, 2015, my day started out as usual; smoking.   I am very spiritual even though I am not as obedient as I should be. I was watching one of my programs on television that I record; I don’t remember which one it was actually. I was sitting in bed praying and thanking God for all the blessings in my life when I started talking to Him and apologizing for not using His help to quit smoking..

I have asked for His help in the past, many times, trying to quit these very addicting cigars.  But, I would not listen to His promptings to “don’t light that cigar” or “you’re quitting remember?” I would just tell myself that “I know, but I want to smoke right now” or I would just shut Him out and not pray or communicate with Him. If I had Christian music playing on the radio I would turn it down or change the station.  I know I’m not the only one to do this stuff; that’s the way we feel like we’re getting away with disobedience, right?

I began praying and repenting and told Him I would let Him help me. Normally I would go out and smoke on occasion but on this day every time I thought about smoking I would just put it off and say to myself “I just don’t want to right now”. This happened every time I thought about going out to smoke or thought about lighting up in the car. The car was my worst place to be when it came to smoking, where I did MOST of my smoking.  But, I just kept putting it off and before I knew it I hadn’t smoked in a week.  I wasn’t throwing fits as I was likely to do when trying to quit smoking, I wasn’t being short tempered or emotional.

God took that addiction away! Still to this day, on occasion, I think I want to smoke but I just tell myself I don’t want it bad enough to actually smoke one.  Ha! Ha!  It has been a wonderful time of being smoke free.  I thank and praise God for this wonderful gift and wanted to share with you my “no smoking” story.