[__ Prayer __] pride, self-love

[Angel]

 

[Christ_empowered]

yeah, I know, right?

At least my people have warmed up to me, and I'm able to be a decent son to them. That's a huge blessing for all 3 of us.

 

[Angel]

Having a good relationship with family is a great blessing. If you don't have them what do you have?

 

[daninthelionsden]

You're right. God changes us, not the world. They unfortunately don't belong to Him.

Thanks for the prayers. I told Matt you were quitting smoking and he is happy for you! He saw me struggle with it but I beat it and so can you!

I smoked for about 4 or 5 years. Probably one of the hardest things to do is quit smoking. Smoking is just slow motion suicide with a death by asphyxiation. My "dad" and father-in-law both died from lung cancer. Terrible deaths. Both grandfathers died from heart attacks. Both smoked. The only way I was able to quit was to make up a list of cigarette brands with their respective strengths of tar and nicotine. I bought a carton of each and continued to smoke a pack a day but as I finished a carton, I would switch to the next brand just slightly weaker than the previous one. Each successive carton got weaker and weaker until I finally got to the weakest brand a few months later. Then I worked on eliminating one cigarette a day from each pack until I was smoking just a few cigarettes a day and throwing away the rest. Talk about an expensive habit. Finally I got the flu and had such a sore throat, I couldn't smoke.....that's when I quit for good.

 

[Angel]

Awesome!

 

[Christ_empowered]

Pride. Self-love. These things keep me from The Lord, and that's a scary thing, because I remember how hellish my life was when I had out of control pride, self-love, etc.

Now, I'm normal, which is to say...I could still use with some humility. I'm just not pathologically prideful and filled with harmful self-love.

You know what's funny? The people who always insisted I was so "narcissistic" and such are now more narcissistic than me. Maybe they always were. Mental Health, Inc. is beginning to seem like a money making scheme more than anything else. That and a way to control people.