40 Days by God's Grace

I'm an African American Man from the US, who happens to be a Christian. I guess that doesn't really matter to most.. but I can't tell my story without it's mention. That being said, I don't believe anything in life is ever a 'coincidence'. So this is my story in a nutshell..

After smoking 20 years, I quit smoking on June 25th 2012 cold turkey. I had tried hundreds of times before that but by the Grace of God, that time it stuck. I remained smoke free for 7 years and unwisely began smoking again the summer of 2019. I had continued to smoke up until this week.

Faith has always been extremely important to me, even at times when I so called 'pushed it to the back burner' in my life. In October, I had been meditating and getting back to practicing my faith. I began to notice a lot of passages I was studying with friends, as well as lesson plans.. evolved around the 40 day stories in the Bible. 40 Days and 40 nights. My life had become unmanageable in many ways. I used the inspiration of Jesus being temped in the Wilderness as motivation for my own life. I had a plan. I would go through the 'wilderness' and be tempted for 40 days and nights with 3 specific vices: Marijuana, Alcohol and lastly Cigarettes. In order of difficulty.

The date was October 3rd 2020, I would try to give up smoking marijuana for 40 days, which I did. At midnight, at the completion of the 4oth day, I began my 40 days abstinence with alcohol--the date then was November 12th. 40 days later, the date was December 22nd and I would try and stop smoking cigarettes again cold Turkey. Here I am on His birthday and my quit resume is as follows: Marijuana free 83 days; Alcohol free 43 days; Tobacco (nicotine) free 3 days.

I am proud of my accomplishments. Each accomplishment of completing the 40 days, gave me a huge amount of self confidence going into the next vice. I won't say that it has made quitting cigarettes any easier.. but having 80 days of momentum going into the quit has undoubtably helped. Again, this is just one story out of millions. I never share anything about myself online but figured this was a perfect time, being that it's because of HIM that I was initially inspired, as well as it being His birthday :) I sincerely wish nothing but prosperity, positivity and strength on your own quit. Merry Christmas!