Alcohol. Gains contol of your life with every sip.

This week has truly been a mess if there ever was one!
Not really sure where to start...

• Tuesday, Emilio Barajas passed away. Tragic. I was told that he fell out of the car while going home after the Rome Braves game Monday night. Brain damage. So heartbreaking. He was way intoxicated, so the story goes. A baby girl don't have her dad.
• Thursday, Elizabeth Burchfield passed away. Again, Tragic. She was a passenger. The driver lost control of the car and Elizabeth was ejected from the vehicle. A young little boy and a younger little girl...both lost their mom.

I know that it shouldn't take tragedy to open up eyes of the blind....but it has. I, like a lot of people my age, have partied and drank, etc. I am also guilty of 'buzzed driving'. I'm equally guilty of driving when I, and everyone around me, knew better than to let me have those keys. I would talk on the phone the whole way home. Not cool. Or head to Waffle House, "food will just absorb that alcohol and I won't be drunk anymore". kinda thinking. Wrong.

My philosophy is this:: Neither of my friends were drinking and behind the wheel, but the impact of alcohol on each of their deaths will forever change the lives of so so many people. Family. Friends. Alcohol, in one way or another, has taken them away much too soon in such preventable deaths! That really breaks my heart.

Jeff Rogers said this, when I sent a prayer request for these families...
   "So much heartbreak friend. You posted the verse of warning just the other day. It is a mocker and a deceiver. The lust of the flesh says take it, it will make you feel fun, charming, etc. Then it mocks and laughs at us, with every gulp that goes down, for it knows it's gaining more control of the wheel with every sip. I'm so sorry friend. He can work the bad to good. For His glory!"
Do you understand how powerful that is?? It really spoke to me. I've never thought about it like that. The verse I posted was Proverbs 20:1  (Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.) It's really powerful to fully comprehend that satan lives in alcohol, and drugs for that matter, and makes it so appealing to us: how we feel when we indulge in it, how pleasing it makes others we're around. But it fully does take complete control of your life, even if you don't realize it! And in the process, it hurts the hearts of you, your family, your friends. Not to mention, the physical hurts it causes you. And let's not forget about driving...chances of an accident multiply tremendously when alcohol is involved.

Get out. Bind satan from having that hold on your life. And simply don't be around it.

I pray for peace for these families and friends who were directly and indirectly effected by these tragedies. My heart truly breaks for them all!