I’m now proudly sober and will never miss an opportunity to speak up and advocate for it.
Greetings all!
I hope all is well
My conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been on my mind quite a bit lately. This past Sunday I talked a little bit about what that conversion has meant to not only me and my current family, but also to my entire posterity.
I’ve decided to share a little bit of my thoughts in reflection of this critical time in my life.
One of the biggest things about my conversion to the church is the fact that I had to become sober.
I’ve had a long history of alcohol use. Sadly, I cannot tell you the first time I drank alcohol. It was something that I just always knew the taste of.
For a really long time I thought that was really cool. I was tough, macho, grown up, and could “handle” my alcohol. Just typing that out is painful to me.
Also, I can’t really say when alcohol began to be a problem for me. Again, sad.
It was sometime in my late teens early twenties when I gradually shifted from drinking only on the weekends to drinking anytime I could get my hands on it.
I was heading down a very familiar road for men of my background
Thankfully, Keri helped me realize that there was a life to be lived sans alcohol. That we could still have a fun, enjoyable life and be completely sober.
I won’t lie, drinking was fun. It felt good to be a little out of control. Most things that are bad for us overall feel really good in the moment..
To be honest, the disappearance of alcohol from my life was not the hardest thing about becoming sober. It was actually really nice to have the extra money and I immediately felt better not drinking.
The hard part was the social part. Going out and people assuming something was wrong because I wasn’t drinking. Something that was such a big part of my life all of a sudden being absent was a big deal to people. I don’t blame them. I would’ve thought the same way if someone who drank as much as I did all of a sudden quit drinking. We’ve been conditioned to think that folks not drinking means that something is wrong with them.
I know God was paying attention to this part of my life though, because he gave me the perfect excuse to not go out and drink. He blessed me with a beautiful wife and son to move in with me after we were married. Not long after, we found out we were expecting twins. So I went from a bachelor to having a wife and 3 kids in 13 months time.
As hard as that period of my life was, it actually was a tender mercy all of that happened as soon as it did. The stress of having all of those kids and life changes stacked up together likely prevented other, more harmful stresses. There were no arguments about going out and drinking because I just didn’t have the time nor energy. I didn’t have to have awkward conversations with friends because I was pre occupied. God knew what he was doing.
Here we are and I’m age 38 and my sobriety is strong as a rock. I’m the biggest advocate I know for sobriety because I now know how much it can benefit my life. I see folks who are my age and younger who struggle with lots of issues, both mental and physical, because of alcohol. I see it get folks into the kind of trouble I used to get into and say the kind of moron things I would say when I drank.
Almost every day is a reminder of my decision to quit drinking and an opportunity to thank my Heavenly Father for putting people in my life that helped make that transition for me.
I’m now proudly sober and will never miss an opportunity to speak up and advocate for it.