Six Months Since God Set Me Free

In three more days it will be six months since I quit smoking!

When I asked for you to pray for me I had no idea your prayers would be so powerful!

On June 24 of 2014 God set me free from the addiction to nicotine and I have not looked back.

I’ve always said nothing would get me off the smokes apart from a miracle and I have to say – I got my miracle – Praise God.

After I wrote my last entry I spent time trying to ready myself for the struggle. I went over all the reasons I wanted to quit, I joined a quit coach, I started a quit journal, I did quit exercises, I read Alan Carr’s “Easy way to quit smoking” and I set a quit date.

My first step was to quit BUYING smokes. I had about three days supply left when I made the vow to quit as soon as I smoked my last cigarette and to never buy another one. That meant my quit day was going to be about three days away, during my work week, I wanted to go through withdrawal during my days off but they were just over a week away. I decided to cut down and make the cigarettes I had left last until my days off came around and then quit. I made those cigarettes last a whole week as I dragged my feet on the way to my actual quit date but they ran out eight hours before my scheduled quit day. I was so tempted to buy a small pack to get me through but I decided to stick to my vow to never buy another smoke and I quit eight hours earlier than planned.

It was nine minutes to eleven at night and I was due to start work at eleven for an overnight shift. I did the shift with no real problems because I already knew I could handle eight hours. When I finished my shift I went home to bed and it was all still OK but I was dreading the morning. When I woke up I realised God must have set me free because, instead of craving my first smoke of the day, all I felt was overwhelming joy at being out of the prison of addiction.

I genuinely believe God helped me through the physical withdrawal because I didn’t experience ANY withdrawal symptoms of any kind AT ALL!!

No grumpiness, no jitters, no crying, no desire for a smoke. Nothing.

About a week after quitting I had some coughing and vomiting but I can’t say if it was to do with quitting or just a virus.

Every now and then it feels like I am dreaming.

So many things are better now.

A layer of depression I never knew I lived with has lifted. I only know about it because I can feel it’s absence now. Does smoking cause depression? I don’t know. Perhaps being a slave to addiction causes depression whether you admit you are a slave or not!

My dry eyes have improved.

My dry mouth has improved.

My skin has gotten softer and there is colour in my face that wasn’t there before. People have been commenting on how good I look and asking what I have done to myself. They tell me there is a twinkle in my eyes they have never seen before.

I have not had a coughing fit that involved desperately trying to cough up at least one lung since I quit and I have to tell you I really, REALLY, do NOT miss those episodes. I haven’t woken myself coughing since I quit either.

There’s been some downers – my gums started bleeding when I brushed my teeth because, suddenly, there was a good blood supply to my gums where there had obviously not been when I smoked. Same thing with my nose, blow too hard and there will be spots of blood because the blood supply everywhere is better now.

I don’t miss anything about smoking and I am NEVER going back to that prison and boy am I enjoying being able to save the money I used to burn.

That leaves just two more hurdles for me to jump.

My addiction to diet coke and my weight problem.

I piled on all the weight I lost just before quitting so now I have to get control over my eating again and lose a LOT of weight before I have a heart attack from carrying way too many kilos for my frame.

I wonder if I ask you to pray for me again if I’ll get another miracle?

I still can’t believe the last one – I honestly believed the only way I would be able to quit smoking would be when I was physically too ill to get to the shops to buy them. I had zero doubt in my mind that I would not be able to quit before my health forced me to.

I just wish I had realised years ago that God could, and would, set me free and make it this easy to stay free!

*Dancing and singing praises to the Lord because I am FREE and it’s FOREVER*