After a recent recovery small group called Freedom for Life, the women involved shared about their experience in the group and how they’ve been growing as a result:
“Before this, my support network of positive Christan women was almost non-existent. One person can’t hold up another person. That’s not how it works. It’s been amazing having these ladies in my life. It’s been really physically helpful. They’ve helped me with my house and have been people I can reach out to when I have stuff going on. That’s not something I’ve had in my life for a long time. That’s something really awesome that makes it worthwhile to attend.
When I was doing the homework, it was amazing the stuff that God was revealing to me and the steps I was starting to make. I’m still trying to work on that stuff, but I’m really grateful for the things I learned about myself and the direction that I did get from God.” —Rachel
“I liked the whole class very much. It helps as a tool for transformation. Dealing with your addiction is not easy and it takes time. It helps as a tool to move out of self-centered to christ-centered. It helps us to fix our eyes on Jesus, so I liked it very much.” —Shin Ping
“When I started Freedom For Life this time, my goal was to work on my food addictions and lose some weight. That wasn’t God’s goal. God’s goal was more simple, more basic, and more important. He chose to work on my co-dependence through forgiveness
The biggest piece of healing was in the forgiveness of my ex. The peace I gained from that forgiveness was empowering. I’m regaining more control because he no longer has my anger, my sadness, or my grief. For a time I was enslaved to those feelings and they kept me bound. Since forgiving him, it’s quite amazing how much more free I feel. God is so good. Thank you for breaking me free from my own prison.” —Teresa
“I’ve been through NA meetings but to really have a more God-based recovery program is just really awesome….and meeting new people was really good.“ —Pam
This was my third time through Freedom for Life and my greatest joy and my unexpected amazement was in what I saw in all of the other ladies in the group and the transformation, revelation, and amazing things that happened in their life. It wasn’t always fireworks, but sometimes it was. Sometimes it was subtle. There were huge moments of growth and putting the work into practice and trusting Jesus. What I got out of it was the joy of knowing I’m forever friends with the woman from this group.
I also learned more about how to trust that Jesus is the one and only thing I need to make better decisions, to have a more joyful life, to talk to and walk with, and to try to be like.
Having Jesus as my sponsor is a wonderful. I’ve been in Alcoholics Anonymous and I love that program, but this was a deeper level for me of bringing God into everything and filling up the great big hole inside that we all have. I used to think making money would fill it up, but it didn’t. I thought men would fill it up. I thought work would fill it up and nothing I could find would fill the hole inside of me until I just asked Jesus to be my everything. Now I feel full, complete.” —Tammy