2nd Birthday

Tomorrow, someone special to me is celebrating their 2nd Birthday! Not a regular birthday, but a day to recognize 2 years of sobriety. Since it's called Alcoholics ANONYMOUS, I guess I won't give the person's name. If you know me well, then you know who it is, and I'm sure he doesn't mind anyone knowing anyway. In fact, he loves to share his story.

I can't even properly express how proud I am of this person. He's always been a loving, funny, caring person. Thankfully, alcoholism didn't take these perfect qualities away from him... and again, thankfully, sobriety didn't change these characteristics either. He is still the same, hilarious, goofy, sweet, sarcastic person I knew before. But now, he actually cares about his own life and what his purpose in life is. He has been able to look at life clearly, and not just live life day-to-day with the same routine of work, home, drink, recover, work, drink, home, drink, recover, etc... with the ocassional desire to change but never really doing anything about it.

Now, he is so thoughtful about what he is doing, how he is treating people, the decisions he is making... and coincidentally, things in his life seem to be much smoother than they were before. He shows up to get-togethers actually wanting to be there and wanting to spend time with family and friends.

I am SO glad that he came to the decision to make this change in his life. He will admit that it wasn't easy - but he will also admit that making the change was SO much better than he ever thought it would be. While he was in that cloud of drinking (to forget, to get through something, to relax, whatever his reasons), he couldn't imagine giving it up completely - how lame, how dumb, what was wrong with getting drunk anyway, it's not like he was a raging alcoholic...any excuse he could think of, I'm sure - he couldn't see the real benefits of quitting compeltely. I think it sounded like more work to him than it should be, or that it couldn't be 'that much better.' But, he found out in little time that it was the best thing for him. It cleared his mind and heart, it allowed him to actually deal with the issues that were deep inside, and it helped him to forgive (others, himself, whoever) and to look to God to show him how to live.

You can tell how much happier he is. You can tell where his priorities lie. And he still is the same person, in a way, in all the right ways. It didn't make him less funny or less fun or anything like that. It made him better in every sense.

I am so proud. And so happy. Sobriety has made him truly seek and know who Christ is. We have more conversations than I've had with most people about God and his purposes and our purposes in God's plan. He has it all. I think he trusts Christ a lot more than some people I know who have claimed to trust Christ for years. At least his life and attitude show it.

This has been prayed for by his family members for years... and I think it is the perfect testament to others to prove that prayer works, and that God does listen, and He CAN change people - note - I said HE can change people in this way, WE DON'T change them. I do believe the individual person has to come to the point or decision where they are willing to give something up in order to make this change - and once they make the decision, then God is there all the way. The verse that says, "Raise up a child in the way he should go, and he shall not depart from it," or something like that - it is true. They will come back to Christ. That gives me hope for others that I've known that are in a place like this person was. I believe that God can and wants to bring all of His children back to Him. So, given God's timing and good purpose, they will come back to Him. I believe it.