{"id":1919,"date":"2014-09-25T22:40:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T02:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etheriedge.wordpress.com\/?p=1919"},"modified":"2020-11-29T15:22:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T20:22:57","slug":"always-an-addict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/25\/always-an-addict\/","title":{"rendered":"Always an Addict?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have an amazing friend who’s battled cancer for 6 years! \u00a0Even when all her tumors shrunk in size and most disappeared, she was still labeled “Stage 4.” One time I got my nerve up and asked her, “Don’t they ever down-grade you?”<\/em> She looked at me through these very wise-from-all-she’s-been-through<\/em> eyes, and said, “Now, Anna, do we really need some doctor to tell me I’m being healed? God does not need man’s labels.”<\/em> Wow, what faith and what an attitude! I saw something that day that I wanted – a living beyond this world.<\/p>\n

As I’ve mentioned before our son has dealt with addiction issues. As parents, David and I knew our child needed help beyond our ability and so we sought professional intervention. With that, came labels and diagnosis and terms like “forever”<\/em> and “always.”<\/em> Those are hard words to hear about your teenager. We believed our job was to love, carefully nurture and protect our kids. What was happening? Where had we gone wrong?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I decided I didn’t like labels. Then I remembered, I’m a sinner saved by grace.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0I like that label. I’m called, chosen, accepted, loved-dearly, blessed<\/strong><\/em>… and I really like those too. I think my problem comes from words that sound hopeless. But wasn’t this what my friend had taught me? Man’s labels can’t stand up to God’s! His are always<\/em> full of hope.<\/p>\n

Our son has learned that negative behaviors cause him trouble, but good decisions bring him life. He uses the addict<\/em> label as a guide for his good. God has healed him in so many ways. Will he forever<\/em> be cautiously aware of potential weaknesses and take measures to stay accountable? Yes, I think so. And so should I. I have weaknesses and situations I also need to avoid.<\/p>\n

I am so proud of our young man’s hard work and his 910 days sober! I praise God daily for all that He’s done. I’m not worrying about the future.\u00a0I’ve learned it’s what I do with\u00a0today<\/em> that matters. Today I’ll be thankful, I’ll celebrate and I’ll choose God’s label “MINE.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0ForGlorySake!\u00a0<\/strong>-Anna<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
“But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life.”<\/strong><\/em> 1 Timothy 1:16<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have an amazing friend who’s battled cancer for 6 years! \u00a0Even when all her tumors shrunk in size and most disappeared, she was still labeled “Stage 4.” One time I got my nerve up and asked her, “Don’t they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,1420],"tags":[19,459,675,680,897],"class_list":["post-1919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction-recovery","category-devotional","tag-addiction","tag-labels","tag-recovery","tag-rehab","tag-work-in-progress"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUt4s-uX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5500,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions\/5500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}