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Share your quitting journey

Walk With Me Instead

SimplySheri
Member
2 16 127

~~If the universe didn't need you, you wouldn't be here.~~  Unknown

In the midst of heartbreak, people turn back to smoking to cope.  In the middle of agony, they pause and light up.  No hesitation.  No second thoughts.  Just mindless chemically produced relaxation for a few precious moments.

Or so say a mom and dad who visit their little guy at my center.  Their parental rights had been terminated on their other children...during that time she got pregnant...the state came and took this child as well.

And so they smoke.  They say they have nothing anyway so why not?  It produces a few minutes of not thinking in a world that is too painful to think about. 

What am I supposed to say?  I recognize this mother's agony.  I see the hopelessness in this father's eyes.  There is nothing to say.  They won't get this baby back.  I told them that I don't know why life happens the way it does.  It can be unfair, it can be devastating, it can be painful.  But you are here for a reason.  You are here because God needs you to carry out His mission.  You are here.  And you need to be aware of your purpose and move towards it.  Maybe you need to help out your children when they come back home years from now.  Maybe you need to help other parents get through their pain.  But whatever your purpose, you will be unable to do it to the best of your ability if you are once again addicted to nicotine.  Please treat yourself better than that.

That's all I knew to say.  No answers....I never seem to have any answers.  But I do know that smoking through your pain isn't the best way to cope.  Do I understand it?  Yes.  But I know that smoking leads down a road full of illness, isolation, selfishness that comes from addiction...well, we all know, don't we?

I can't ease their pain.  I can't do anything about their journey at all.  But I walk it a bit with them.  I listen.  And I remind them that if the universe didn't need them, they wouldn't be here. 

The mother didn't smoke today. 

Thinking of smoking?  Walk with me instead and tell me why you hurt so much that you would lose your quit.....

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