healed from within
I once promised myself that I’d tell the world how I managed to stop smoking – if ever I did!
In 1978 I was going through a divorce. I had two little girls aged 3 and 5 years. One day I remember feeling sad as I returned to my home in Bryn y Maen. I just sat in the car for a while listening to the radio. I heard the end of a preacher’s message. He said that God can bring good out of a bad situation. Those words stayed with me.
The next two years, after the divorce, were not the happiest of my life. My interests, apart from my daughters, were tennis and badminton but, as I smoked nearly twenty cigarettes a day, I was unfit. However we used to visit my mother in Porthmadog frequently and she was a wonderful help to us.
I was looking for answers to the problems in my life. I liked to listen to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and, as I had a friend involved in spiritualism, I read horoscope magazines. I even read a Bible which I found hard to understand. My friend talked about the spiritualist medium she visited to try contact her dead mother. She was upset one day when items in her home were moved from place to place and she heard footsteps on the stairs when no-one was there.
Now at this time my mother invited me to her church in Porthmadog. At first I was reluctant to go but I knew I needed help. I had become very depressed quite suddenly for no apparent reason. The Sunday arrived, September 28th 1980. After a pleasant service I asked the lady at the book stall if they had any books on spiritualism (thinking of my friend). I was given some literature on cults and two booklets called ‘Journey into Life’, one for each of us. I remember thinking that my friend needed it more than I did.
That evening, however, I read my booklet. I didn’t know that my life was about to change. It explained how Jesus wants to come into our lives and live in our hearts. As a child I had always believed that Jesus was the son of God but he was not relevant to my life – he was out there somewhere, but not in my life.
The booklet suggested that I ask Jesus into my heart, just open the door and he will come in – so what did I have to lose? I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I began to talk to him quite naturally and I had a reassurance that everything would be alright now.
For the next three days I was on cloud nine. All the depression had left me. A lady from the church called at my mother’s house next day and when I told her what had happened she hugged me. I knew I had done something right for a change! She advised me to go to a church when I returned home. It took some effort on my part but I did.
A kind family in this church looked after me. Unfortunately the lady was an asthmatic and couldn’t cope with my smoking. Well, very soon after, I realized that I was much more secure inside myself and I didn’t need those cigarettes anymore.
I asked Jesus to take away all the cravings and He did. I stopped smoking in 1980 and I haven’t smoked since! That’s almost 25 years ago. I gave up the ‘horror’scopes too!
Joyce
North Wales