Have you ever noticed that when you are dealing with something in your life, everywhere you turn, somebody is talking about that particular thing? I refer to that as the "God moments" in my life. My routine, of sorts, is to come downstairs, and turn on my radio. Then, I make the coffee. My radio is set to a Christian radio station that plays one radio preacher/teacher after another. My life is busy, so I rarely get to actually sit down and listen to one from start to finish. But the Lord always seems to make sure I am in the room at the appropriate time to hear what it is HE wants me to hear, LOL!! And believe me, it always gets my attention. I will usually say, out loud, "I hear you, Lord!". The beauty of that, too, is that my kids hear me talking to the Lord. The little ones will ask what I am talking about, or what I am hearing, but the older ones, well, they are used to their mom talking out loud to God. But seriously, it always seems to be that one of them, if not ALL of them, will be preaching/teaching on whatever is going on in my life. Beth Moore was teaching on the passage in John 2 for two days in a row. Ok, so it was not two days in a row, since she is only on once a week, but I missed it, so I was listening on www.oneplace.com . For those of you who need a little reminder of what the second chapter of John talks about, it is the passage that so many people fall back on, when validating why they drink alcohol. Now, calm down folks. I know all the verses that go along with that whole discussion. I know the "drinking to drunkenness" verse. I know the "causing a brother to stumble" verse. I know the "eat meat or not eat meat" verse. I have teenagers, and I have adult kids, teehee. So, yes, I have had to endure this conversation many times. "Why is it ok for so and so to drink, and they go to church, and yet we don't believe it is ok to drink?" Once our kids move out, and are no longer under our supervision or protection or jurisdiction, I can no longer "tell them what to do". But, by George, as long as I have the opportunity, I will continue to tell them why we believe what we do. I was raised by a daddy and mom that, every time I walked out the door to go on a date, or whatever, I heard..."Remember who you are, and what you are!" I am Debra Faye Adams, I am the daughter of Richard and Ann Adams, I am a child of the King! Behave accordingly. Everything you do, reflects on me, and not only that, everything you do, reflects on God. I was a teenager, I went to college, I fell to temptation way too many times. I am a sinner, saved by grace. But I don't want to camp out there. I know I am covered by God's grace. I know I am "free from the Law". I know that I am not strong enough to live a perfect life, without sin. But I also love my Lord, and will always strive to attain the goal to live a life that is above reproach. I don't want to ever be referred to as a "carnal" Christian. My daddy preached on that many times. He preached "shun the very appearance of evil" many times. I feel very very blessed to have been able to sit under my daddy's preaching for so many years. We, as the Govero family, do not drink alcohol. We choose to abstain. For very personal reasons, that some people may or may not know. My husband was raised Catholic. When we married, he drank. He didn't just drink, he would be the first to start the party, and the last one to leave the party. Needless to say, that was a hard pill to swallow for a preacher's daughter, living in the same town as her daddy, Dr. Richard Adams, having listened to "everything you do reflects on me" all her life. I jokingly tell people, our first two years of marriage was hell. My husband drank heavily, came in drunk way too many times. We had some tough times, folks. But, we came through it, and God saved him. There was a time during that time, that as I was constantly "nagging", LOL, my husband about his "sins", God showed me that what was coming out of my mouth, was worse than what was going into his. God got a hold of me, and convicted me of my nasty attitude towards my husband. My daddy told me that marriage was so important to God, that if I didn't work on my relationship with my husband, he didn't believe my prayers were going past the ceiling. He showed me the verses of how a godly woman could win her husband by her actions. I knew those verses were there, but had neglected to apply them to me, go figure. So, it took some time, but I changed my attitude towards my husband, changed my behavior towards my husband. I began to love him. Truly, unconditionally, love my husband. And yes, God is good. He saved my husband! He walked away from alcohol, and my marriage was saved. Keith will tell you, he was not strong enough to do it in moderation. He liked the way it made him feel, even in moderation. He was the "pound/ton" guy. Whatever is good by the pound, is better by the ton!! That is the way it is with some people. I freely admit, I am one of those people. Most everything I do, I go all out! If I have to moderate it, I don't want to do it!! Now don't go giving me the "excess is sin" speech. I know that phrase is over used as well. If I did drink, I'd be sloppy drunk within no time, I am sure. Because I do like to "feel good", and if the drink makes me feel good, then yea, if one makes me feel this good, lets have another!! The next think you know, I would be asking my kids to not be so loud, and don't let the gate slam. So, I don't drink because I am weak. I don't drink because I have seen the pain that it causes to so many marriages. I can have fun without drinking. Keith and I have been known to attend a party that we know there will be alcohol. We go, we visit with our friends, but we have noticed that the later it gets, the more people begin to act differently. And, that is the point that we make our exit. That is when the moderation line has been passed, in my opinion, in our friends. The funny thing about the story of my husband, and his friends, back when we first got married. They noticed when he went to play cards, he didn't drink. He didn't preach at them, he just didn't join them in the drinking. He just played cards with them. It wasn't long, before they quit calling him. He was hurt by that. I remember him saying, "what, we can't be friends if I don't drink with you?" Yes, it was a hard lesson to learn for my newly saved husband. Who his true friends were. Who still wanted to be his friend, even if he wasn't the "party animal" anymore. I have seen it hurt people and destroy lives. No thank you. I'll have a glass of water, with lemon.