Victory | Colleen

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, you may be seated.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, my name is Colleen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am a grateful believer in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in recovery for co-dependency.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, so tonight, since we're talking about victory, I get to share about victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm excited to be here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have two great victory stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: for you that happened within the last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to share one right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we went to California.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me, Wade and Chad and Tara, we went to California for a celebrate recovery summit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what that is is it is a training conference.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a Wednesday Thursday Friday, training conference for celebrate recovery leaders

[SPEAKER_00]: It's at Saddleback Church in California, and that's where celebrate recovery was birthed, and every so-one's to every year they have this conference, but we go to it, we try to go to it every other year because California is expensive, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, the summit was spectacular.

[SPEAKER_00]: The worship was beautiful, they did hymns, and if you're born and raised in church that might bother you, or it might just make your soul come alive again, but we were to come home Saturday.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went from Saturday to Saturday, and Wednesday Thursday Friday was the conference.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Saturday comes along, and usually you're ready to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: You miss your bed, you miss your pillow, all that good stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just so you know, I get a little bit of anxiety before traveling, and I know that people are scared of flying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I get that because you have no control, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, although I have read the statistics that you get killed in traveling by car before you get killed by plane, but still, I have no control, so I get a little bit of anxiety because it's kind of like an adrenaline hit, I'm always like I'm on caffeine or my mouth's a little fancy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I say things kind of like, and I don't mean to, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, although I have read the statistics that you get killed in traveling by car before you get killed by plane, but still, I have no control, so I get a little bit of anxiety, you know, because it's kind of like an adrenaline hit, I'm always like I'm always like I'm on caffeine or my mouth's a little fancy, I say things kind of like, and I don't mean to, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's out of my control, no, it is in my control, but well, you know, my other form of anxiety is frequent trips to the bathroom before you go on a plane, you know, it's terrible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hate it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this time on the way home.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have the anxiety that I normally do, and I believe that was a gift from God, but we were leaving the beautiful city of Lake Forest, and we went to LAX, which is Los Angeles airport.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a really big difference between, like, forest and Los Angeles, really, really big.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to listen to these times.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we were allowed to board the plane at 11.30, and our flight was going to take off at 12.10.

[SPEAKER_00]: So 11.30, we're all on the plane.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're texting on the runway, getting ready, you know, we have to...

[SPEAKER_00]: have our turn before we can take off so we were in line and we're getting ready and we're standing there for a minute and the captain comes on he says hey everybody I just want to let you know that we're going to have to turn around and go back to the gate because there's a light flashing on the one of these electrical boards and maintenance has to come in and look for the problem before we can take off so I'm like okay it's

[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm telling myself, don't freak out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we get back to the gate and we're sitting there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then 1230, pay attention to the times, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: 1230 comes around and the captain comes on the loud speaker and he said, hey, everybody, just want to let you know that maintenance is on board and looking for the problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: The plane has eight breaking systems.

[SPEAKER_00]: One is faulty, but we don't need that.

[SPEAKER_00]: we're going to get ready and they're going to fix it and we're going to be out of here as soon as we can.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm thinking okay so okay I'm going to trust these guys right they know planes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So 130 comes around we're still sitting on that plane and starting to get a little bit upset and Captain says hey the maintenance crews down there trying to locate the correct

[SPEAKER_00]: electrical box to pull the plug.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I decided, okay, I'm starting to get mad.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, okay, I just need to get up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I got out of the unbuckled, of course, I stayed buckled for what two hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I unbuckled and I'm standing, you know, just gotta get that blood flowing back up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I felt like I was sitting for four, we'll two hours and then I'm like, well, you know what, we could be halfway home by now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I try not to put that in my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here, everyone, they have 13 of the 56 screws off the electrical panel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I swear, that's what he said.

[SPEAKER_00]: 56 screws, they got 13.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, they're still working on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just so you know, the FAA only allows crews to be on board for eight hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've already been, the crews have already been in Georgia once today.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we started, which is California, got to go back to Georgia.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just wanted you to be aware that we're going to need them to finish this because our crew's going to have to get off this plane.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at weight, I'm trying, I'm trying to keep it together because I'm about to lose my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: So then, hey, 330 comes around.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got on this plane at 1130. 330.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's starting to get a little.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how much oxygen can they keep putting in there?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a matter of fact, I'm going to tell you something.

[SPEAKER_00]: I came home with something.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure the plane was a peach tree dish.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peat tree dish.

[SPEAKER_00]: So at 330, he says, hey, folks, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to de-plane.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to switch crews.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to get another aircraft.

[SPEAKER_00]: They haven't fixed the problem yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, OK.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now I'm like, we could have been home by now.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could have been on the way home by now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And nope, that wasn't happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we go back to the gate and I'm thinking, why are they going to do with our luggage?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is when people must lose their luggage, just right at this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, great.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to have any luggage.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're sitting at the gate and now they have those attendance in the gate and he says, hey, everybody, we're trying to get a new crew and a new pilot and a new aircraft.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, hey, this is it, we're going to go home today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going home today.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I've had planning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, my plan was we were going to go home today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was five o'clock and he got back on his like, I'm sorry, we're canceling, we have to cancel.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, okay, so I'm like, what are we going to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are we going to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the first for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've never had this happen before in my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know what to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will tell you this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Delta took care of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: They bought us dinner.

[SPEAKER_00]: They put us up in a hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They got us coffee.

[SPEAKER_00]: They did.

[SPEAKER_00]: They did good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they put us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wait.

[SPEAKER_00]: The victory in this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there is a moral to the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody around me was still live and breathing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I did not tarnish my witness for Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: I kept it together.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't cost anybody out, which if you know me, I could have.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a victory for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It may be a small victory, but nonetheless, it's a victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they put us in the built more in Los Angeles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very, very pretty.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very pretty.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got there at 10 o'clock at night and the music was pumping.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think it's actually, I don't know, Tara said she thinks she might have not heard it after 11, but I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: So finally, we get into the bed and I just are crying.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, you know what, I held together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I guess the Lord didn't want us on that plane for some reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, you know what, at this point, I don't care if it has breaks.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just coast until we stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, so it was so frustrating.

[SPEAKER_00]: We started our journey home at 11.30 on Saturday, and we made it home 7 p.m.

[SPEAKER_00]: on Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: With our luggage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a yay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Victor Reed, but what I realized is after I handed it over to the Lord, everything was moved.

[SPEAKER_00]: So principal five is voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask him to remove my character defects.

[SPEAKER_00]: Happy are those who's greatest desires to do what God requires Matthew five six.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are in six steps six and seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were entirely ready to have God

[SPEAKER_00]: humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up, James 4-10.

[SPEAKER_00]: Step 7, we humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all on righteousness 1st Jan 19.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now in our recovery, we have

[SPEAKER_00]: Finish sharing our inventories if we're on the step setting.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anybody is so bold, who's done an inventories so far this year?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's great, that itself is a victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully through your inventory, you and your sponsor who you shared it with might have been able to point out some character defects or some common denominator

[SPEAKER_00]: And those turn out to be our negative character defects.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we also find out that we have some positive character traits, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Over at the Info Tower, there is a sheet of a list of both negative and positive if you can't pinpoint them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know Ali talked about it a few weeks back.

[SPEAKER_00]: We still have a couple of sheets over there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead and check that out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in our recovery, when we do our inventory, we realize that we are victorious over the big thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we all have a big thing, right, that we had to get over and we've done it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing it through this step study, through this open share group, through people, through our relationships, have you gotten your code of dependency and our control?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, listen, it's a daily battle, but have we stopped drinking?

[SPEAKER_00]: We did the big thing, we stopped drinking, we stopped drugging, we stopped porn.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we've done this big thing, but now what we're going to do is find out all those little things that brought us to the big thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we need to fix those too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the V in victory is voluntarily submit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters and view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is your true and proper worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love that, because you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything starts right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything starts right here and then the rest of our body just follows with along with our mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we need to cleanse that, get rid of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The flying story was it was all about my lack of control and that's my co-dependency because I have to be in control.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could have been a

[SPEAKER_00]: Mess of anger I could have made a public display of ungodliness.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I could have But I didn't and I believe that's because I Actually my husband said I did cuss a little bit at him, but I don't remember that so it was all a blur But I do know that I had to make myself Practice self control so that I didn't spin out of control.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes

[SPEAKER_00]: the eye.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's identify our character defects.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is great for us partners in his hearts a man plans his course.

[SPEAKER_00]: but the Lord determines his steps.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's in Proverbs 169.

[SPEAKER_00]: In order to work against these character defects, we have to identify which ones they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are made in the image of Christ, but we do have flesh, and that flesh is something that is constantly trying to get us to do the wrong thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we identify what we have to work on, we can use our tools that we learn here,

[SPEAKER_00]: and definitely tap on to the Lord, he can help us get rid of those little things, just like he helped us get rid of that big thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's faithful, so faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: To see, change your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again,

[SPEAKER_00]: He can help you change your thinking patterns.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, that's where it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all in our thinking patterns.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to submit those thoughts to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did it for us to stop drinking.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did it for us to not yell at our kids every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was one of my great victories.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember counting the days where I didn't yell at the kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were 18 months of part yell and there were girls.

[SPEAKER_00]: OK.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I'm not justifying it, but it was tough.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what had happened when we stopped drinking?

[SPEAKER_00]: Our mind changed how we viewed alcohol.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our mind changed how we viewed drugs.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't our best friend anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: It became something that we had to walk through in our minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want that.

[SPEAKER_00]: My body doesn't need.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many things that we can do because we get sober, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes I've heard, no, I haven't been in alcohol or anything like that, but I've heard that getting rid of the addiction is the easy part when it comes to recovery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the recovery process is hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you guys hear that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or is it just me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to excuse me, like I said, I got something on that plane, somebody, and even ask, wait, when somebody starts coughing, I'm like this, oh my gosh.

[SPEAKER_00]: But T, turn over our character defects, hardest part, best part, humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up James 410, humble.

[SPEAKER_00]: I used to line humbleness with being weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a prideful person, I just, I'm just gonna say it, I have pride issues, I've always had private, pride issues, I blame that in my doom, but no, it's really me, being weak is not, being humble is not being weak, that is a life from the enemy, definitely a life from the enemy, that's a false belief, do not believe that, allowing ourselves to be at the bottom will help us turn away from the pride,

[SPEAKER_00]: before what Pride comes before a fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to become submissive and ready to learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can remember a time, you know, when you're in recovery for like, let's, I'm gonna say it's five years.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're walking this road of recovery and we feel good, you know, we can count for anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have,

[SPEAKER_00]: Learn to not do certain things, we have learned to change our ways, our thinking patterns, and I can, for me it was, I was no longer a dormant, I no longer please people before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just chose to please God, and I was thinking, you know, at five years recover, I got this lift.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got this lift, and then my boss called me into her office, and she said,

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard you and Bridget left work early and you didn't finish your task for the day, is that true?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now let me tell you what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridget was like, hey, let's finish this tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just get out of here for the afternoon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go shop.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do so.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just get out of here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, well, we really should end.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, I know, but we can finish it all tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody's ever gonna know.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, okay, because I wanted to please her, so already I'm back into my co-dependency cycle, and she said, so, did you do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: You left early.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, yeah, we did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, how did you do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: When you know you had stuff to do, I said, well, I can't answer that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I can't answer that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went to have fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was better than working.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she said, well, I appreciate you being honest with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, great, something in myself, I just got out of it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate your honesty, but I'm gonna have to write you up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't get written up in this family.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't, my dad told me that if you're gonna take pride in anything, you better take pride in your work, your livelihood.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, you have to write me up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, yeah, so here I am, you know, this is, I used to work for Hallmark.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm signing the, you know, she had to write me on the sign of the thing, I did it, I did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I was very, very convicted.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I thought I was going to weigh with something, but the Lord convicted me in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think my learning of recovery before then because otherwise I would have never just

[SPEAKER_00]: And there was two things that I thought about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was good for me to eat that humble pie.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now that I look back at that, it changed the way I had my work habits.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it was for the better.

[SPEAKER_00]: Always be honest first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we're told that all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I figured that being humble, that's when I learned that being humble was not a bad place to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: True humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to think of others first.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the one that hit me when I was reading this.

[SPEAKER_00]: True humility is staying teachable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of how much you already know.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm walking along this road of recovery five years.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I got this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: The O is one day at a time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll bring its own worries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today's trouble is enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Jesus said, come to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest, Matthew 1128.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hear one day at a time a lot in recovery, don't we?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because when we're hanging on by that thread,

[SPEAKER_00]: We can't live for the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to live for that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have to get through it and remember where it starts, right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you take too much on in your mind, you'll get overwhelmed, and then you will fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I didn't say fail.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said fall because in recovery, this is what you do, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you work when I'm going to talk about in a second,

[SPEAKER_00]: this process and get people around you and start making relationships and get right with God first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he sent his son for us right so that we can walk into eternity with him and that's the complete victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it not?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we got to start somewhere, and it's a process, and actually that is the R recovery is a process, and I am certain that God who began the good work in you will continue as work until it's finally finished on the day when Christy's returns Philippians 1-6.

[SPEAKER_00]: We aren't perfect, but we are victorious, and we can't expect perfection out of ourselves, because then we're always going to feel like we're failing.

[SPEAKER_00]: What fun is that?

[SPEAKER_00]: It seems to be a, we go through recovery, we learn, we fall, we're victorious, then we struggle again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the times of the fall and of the struggle is where we learn how to be victorious.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we know that the old way of doing things is not producing the fruit.

[SPEAKER_00]: It takes some time and we got plenty of time,

[SPEAKER_00]: Hopped up because you've fallen because Jesus is right here saying, hey, take my hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can do this again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can do this again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to get our priorities in line first and then we'll succeed and give it to Tories.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the why is you must choose to change.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives grace generously as a scripture say.

[SPEAKER_00]: So humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come close to God and God will come close to you, wash your hands of wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: For your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: James 4, 6 through A. So you must make that decision to change.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus won't do it for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: but he'll show you how.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just have to walk in the steps that he puts out for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We change our people, our places, our things.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we are honest, as I learned in that one scenario, I wasn't honest and it hurt to eat that humble pie, but

[SPEAKER_00]: Later on, I realized how good it was for me, you know, I said we were at the summit and last week we heard the statistic from pastor Andy who is the pastor over at set of back church and he said that when people do something on their own, whether it be losing weight, stopping drinking and they do it on their own 80% of the people go back to their old lifestyle within the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he also said, if you combat that addiction, losing weight, whatever with open share group, celebrate recovery, step study church, 70% of the people are victorious.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think that is?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we have each other around us, praying for each other to walk the walk in victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've battled in addiction and you're still sober, congratulations, because it is a battle that never ends.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a daily battle in congrats.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: To combat those little character defects that are small.

[SPEAKER_00]: because that's what got you to your addiction in the first place, work on them, because if you take all these little character defects and you stop working on them and you're consistently working on them, you achieve victories that help establish positive routines and they strengthen your ability to succeed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got another victory story.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like I said, we were in California, and we went from Saturday to Saturday.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we went down to the silver recovery conference, we went to Yellowstone, Erp, Yellowstone.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have so many national parks for two days.

[SPEAKER_00]: All I'm going to say is, wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that creation that God gave us is a matter of fact, we learn that there is still one active glacier up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So my husband and I were trying to work on eating a little bit healthier and I'm going to realize that early on in our relationship that we like to cook together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember him saying, we're going to be bad for one another because we cook good together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which means we eat good together, which means we gain good weight together.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what I soon quickly realized that when you go to your Simity and you have to get up close and personal to all these beautiful things that the Lord created for us, it's going to take a little bit of work to get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: We wanted to see the Sequoias.

[SPEAKER_00]: Read all about them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beautiful, massive.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we go to this area of Yosimity National Park and I see this sign, it's like 1.3 miles.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I mean, we do 1.3 miles just in our day.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: 1.3 miles.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like 2,600 steps.

[SPEAKER_00]: 2,600 steps up.

[SPEAKER_00]: OK?

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're walking on this trail and it's dirt and there's rocks and it was tough.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not hikers, obviously.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that was a fun thing to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of people walking up this hill, 1.3, 2,600 steps away, they're walking, and I don't know if you know this, but Yosemite is four, four, two, 11,000 feet above sea level.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like, the oxygen's depleted up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's even hard to breathe.

[SPEAKER_00]: So first of all, we're like, we're doing it, we're doing it, and I'm starting to get like,

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, wait, how's your knee?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he had, he had, he had, he had knee surgery like in the middle of June.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, dang, your knee must be killing you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, no, am I right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm alright.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, okay, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, man, let's just quit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, you see Chad and Terry?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, yeah, they're up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, are you sure you're feeling okay because I can't breathe them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if there's no humidity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's hot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, no, let's just keep on trucking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep on trucking.

[SPEAKER_00]: So victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Show me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to tell you what, that was victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those trees are ginormous.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing like it on this earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was very happy we did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to tell you what we did on the way down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, actually, that's what hurt his knee more is going down.

[SPEAKER_00]: But these people who are huffing it like, I'm like, you guys can do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys can do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was this old woman I never know if she made it up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But man, I hope she did.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was, she was, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was really, really having a hard time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm going to tell you something.

[SPEAKER_00]: What may be a little victory to you, making it up your Simony Mountain or not people pleasing or not being a dormant, it might be little victories that will lead up to great big victories and it will change your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like I said earlier, the number one victory we have is Christ and when we get to see him in eternity, that's

[SPEAKER_00]: these little victories are worth every, every single victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you guys for letting me share.