I remember a number of years ago my husband was a groomsman in a friend’s wedding. Both my father-in-law and I went to the wedding while my husband stood up with his friend. During the reception, my husband sat with the wedding party, while my father-in-law and I sat at a table together. Champagne glasses were passed out and champagne served to everyone. I’d never tasted champagne before, so I thought I’d try it. My father-in-law, sitting next to me, tried his, so I decided to be brave and try mine. My father-in-law took a sip, so I went for it and took a sip, just when my husband was coming over to our table to say hello. It freaked him out just a little. Just as he arrived to the table, he sees his dad and wife taking sips of champagne. I only took two sips, but I had to do it right when the hubby caught me.

I don’t drink. That’s why the hubby was freaked out just a little. It’s not because I’m a Christian that I don’t drink. Though the Bible tells us not to get drunk. Ephesians 5:18. I don’t drink because I am from Alaska and I’ve seen what alcohol abuse does. Alaska may be the land of the midnight sun, but it has a very dark side to it. I’ve had many close relatives die from alcoholism. When you see people actually die from the stuff, it’s sobering. Alcohol kills. And based on the record on my dad’s side of the family, we all apparently have fragile livers.

There is a lot of alcoholism in Alaska. If you think about it, it makes sense. Alaska has long, dark, cold winters where no one wants to go out of the house. Cabin fever is a real problem. During the cold deep of winter, you can go to work when it’s still dark outside, then get off of work and it’s dark again. That’s a lot of darkness. Our human bodies need some sun. It’s dark AND cold outside. So if one has a chance to go outside, one may be deterred based on the severity of the low temperature outside.

If I wasn’t a Christian, growing up in Alaska, I probably would have been a drinker. It’s what everyone else was doing. All the kids in high school talked about getting drunk over the weekend when they got back to school on Monday. The foyer of the grocery store had drunks in there all the time. When I worked at the grocery store, I got proposed to at least once a month by some drunk who followed me down the aisles of the grocery store. I grew up in a town of about 1500 people. For a town that small, we had two bars and a liquor store. We were grand central station for all of the dry villages around us. (Dry villages are when a village outlaws all liquor in their town).

My mom used to play the piano for our little church. She would drive out to the church about once a week and practice. I was usually the tag along. If mom needed company, I was it. One particular night we were coming out of the church to go to the truck when my mom and I spotted a drunk up at by the stop sign of the road. My mom said to hurry up because the drunk spotted us and started staggering our way. As I tried to open my side of the truck, I realized the window had been shattered. There were little pieces of glass everywhere. Distracted with the broken window, we weren’t fast enough to beat the drunk that was headed our way. He caught up to us and demanded we give him a ride. My mom said ok. Oh great mom! Thanks, I get to sit next to a drunk. He hopped in the cab of the truck with me stuck in the middle. He smelled of alcohol and kept picking up pieces of glass, leaning on me, and yelling, “Who broke my window!” I was miffed sitting next to him thinking, “Well you did you moron!” He kept breathing his boozy breath on me and yelling about the broken glass. Thankfully we didn’t have far to go to drop him off at the beginning of town.

So drunks and drinking was everywhere in the town I grew up in. I accepted the Lord Jesus as my savior when I was nine years old. And with my conversion I discovered the power of the Holy Spirit. God says not to be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:18. I really knew what that meant at a young age. I had seen drunks everywhere. I had seen them make fools of themselves. The Holy Spirit was working in my life, teaching me, that I never needed booze. The power of the Holy Spirit in my life has no side effects. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we never make fools of ourselves. We don’t wake up with hangovers or a long list of guilt and apologies. And the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. The fruit of too much alcohol is: hate, self-loathing, fried livers, sickness, guilt, weight gain and no self control. Can you see why I don’t drink?

The other day as I was walking through a store, grocery shopping, I heard a loud voice in my ear telling me to quit this blog. It kept saying that it was useless to even start. Don’t bother, the voice was saying. Give it up already. Who do you think you are to be writing about Christian things? You’re not a theologian. You are just a woman, what can you possibly offer anyone? Just quit already. This is going to be a huge waste of time. Quit, quit, quit, the voice wouldn’t stop. I felt anxious and overwhelmed. I felt discouraged. I made a quick decision in my head that I would quit before I even started. I prayed a desperate prayer, telling God I would quit, but if You change your mind, I won’t.

It’s an interesting journey, this Christian walk. We do hear voices in our head. Not that we are crazy, on the contrary. I believe God grants much sanity as a believer in Jesus Christ. However, we do hear voices in our head. But that would be expected. When we accept Jesus Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit moves in. He moves inside of us. And He starts talking. I love that whole imagery of the Holy Spirit talking to us. He makes suggestions. He tells us what to do. He warns us. He guides us. He pricks our conscience. The Holy Spirit is ONE of the voices we hear.

And then there are other voices. These aren’t nice voices. They’re the voice of the enemy talking. The enemy is out to destroy us, discourage us, shut us down anyway possible. As we walk the Christian walk, we come in contact with the enemy. He wants to deceive us. He wants to throw us off our game. To use a football analogy, he wants to tackle us and even hurt us so bad, we can’t play in the game anymore. Every believer has had the enemy’s voice in their head, some have listened to it, and some recognize it as the enemy talking.

How do we recognize who is doing the talking? Good question. If the enemy wants to discourage us, then when we feel discouragement, that’s the enemy. If we feel anxious, overwhelmed, that is the enemy. The enemy’s goal is to hurt us, and if we feel feelings of doubt, and discouragement, you know the enemy is attacking you. And obviously, God is the opposite. He loves us. He cares for us. He asks us to cast our cares upon Him for He cares for us. God encourages us. He answers our prayers. God is our hope and salvation. Experiencing hope and encouragement is from the Lord.

Obviously, I haven’t quit before I started. I’m still here. After I prayed my desperate prayer, a funny thing happened on my way to quitting. I came home from the store and sat down at the computer. I was prepared to give it one more shot. There were a couple of things I didn’t know how to do and it was frustrating me. I decided to look up a newsletter about blogging, called the Useletter by Amy Lynn Andrews, to see if I could get some help. I pulled up the Useletter and I had a screenful of columns of newsletters to choose from. I randomly picked one of the newsletters and clicked on it. Wham! Of all the newsletters in all of that site I picked the one that was addressing my EXACT problem I was facing! I did exactly what she said. It worked! Hot dog, I was in business again! Just to make sure this wasn’t a fluke, I did it again, and it worked perfectly. Of all of the newsletters on that screen I just so happened to pick the exact one I needed. Now was this a coincidence? I think not! God was at work here. My first problem was solved.

My second problem was pictures. I wanted to attach a nice picture of God’s creation for my first blog. The so called free websites I was going to for pictures weren’t free. As I was fumbling with a picture I randomly clicked on a picture we already had taken a few years ago. It was so nice, I decided to use that one. I put it in my blog and it worked! I didn’t have to pay big bucks for it. I felt so hopeful and encouraged. I might just be able to do this whole blogging thing after all. There were these feelings bubbling up in me: hope, encouragement, joy…I was smiling by this time. Gone were those ugly feelings I had felt at the store. Gone was the discouragement. Gone was the feeling of wanting to quit.

The enemy only shows up when we are doing something that might harm his career of taking as many people to hell with him as he can. I must be doing something right, if the enemy was attacking me and telling me NOT to do the blog. That voice in the store, that was discouraging me, was the enemy. The guidance I felt as I worked on my blog, was the Lord.

It hit me smack in the face. If God was encouraging me and the enemy was discouraging me, I need to go with God. God wants me to do the blog. The enemy doesn’t. Hmmm, which should I choose? I think that’s obvious. So now I’ve done a 180 degree turn around. I feel hopeful about the blog. And if the enemy doesn’t want me to do it, I really probably should.

Last Saturday my son broke his thumb and wrist. He was skateboarding down a hill with some friends, began to wobble, fell off the board and put out his hand to catch himself. He walked in the house obviously favoring his right hand and announcing, “Mom, I think I broke my hand!” Rewind the scene a 1/2 hour earlier and you will see the point of my story.

A half hour before my son walked into the house with broken bones, he asked if he could go to the bike trails with his friends. Instantly, a thought passed through my brain, “Make sure he wears a helmet!” I looked up at him, “Only if you wear a helmet.”

My son: “Mom…I don’t want to wear a helmet.”

Me: “Then, you can’t go to the bike trails.”

My son: “My helmet’s broken, I can’t wear it.”

Me: “Then, no, you can’t go to the bike trails. I’ll only let you go if you wear the helmet.”

My son: “Fine, I’ll wear the helmet.”

That instant thought I had to tell my son he had to wear a helmet didn’t come from me. There have been so many times I have let him go to the bike trails without even thinking about a helmet. But this time, I was going to fight to the death. The voice in my head kept telling me, “Don’t let him go without a helmet. He NEEDS a helmet. Make sure he wears a helmet.” These weren’t my thoughts. This was a voice inside my head that could predict the future. I can’t predict the future. This voice was telling me to draw a line in the sand, make sure the boy is wearing a helmet. The voice didn’t tell me what was going to happen. It just was urgent-make sure he’s got on a helmet.

I love the way the Holy Spirit works in a Christian’s life. He tells us what to do, where to go, what to say, stop, go, wait. He is never pushy or demanding. He simply puts gentle thoughts in our head. We don’t have to listen to them. We could totally ignore them. But if we are willing to listen, if we are walking with the Lord, those thoughts come. When Jesus left the planet, He told His disciples to wait for a Gift. The Gift would come. That Gift was the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the trinity. He would be a Christian’s Guide.

I’ve heard that Mordecai, Esther’s uncle in the book of Esther, was a type of Holy Spirit. He gave suggestions to Esther as to what she should do next. Then Esther had a choice: she could either listen to Mordecai or blow him off and do her own thing. Esther of course, made the wise decision and followed the suggestions of Mordecai. We would be wise, as Christians, to always follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance. That’s what He is there for. He’s our Guide, our Gift as we live out our lives as Christians.

When my son came back in the house with his broken hand I looked at him and said, “Aren’t you glad you wore a helmet?”

My son: “Yes, I hit my head on the pavement too.”

Me: “You would have bigger problems than just a broken bone if you didn’t wear the helmet.”

My son: “I know!”

When we went to the doctor’s to get an xray, the nurse looked at him. He had a huge bleeding scrape above his elbow, and two giant welts on his back.

Nurse: “Were you wearing a helmet?”

My son: “Yes.”

Nurse: “Good thing you were wearing a helmet. You would have much bigger problems, if you didn’t”

My son: “I know.”

The Doctor came in.

The Doctor: “Were you wearing a helmet?”

My son: “Yes.”

The Doctor: “It was a good thing you were wearing a helmet. Broken bones can be fixed, but if you injure your head, that is a bigger problem that can’t be fixed easily.”

My son nodded his head. I think he was getting the point.

Three days later we were in the orthopedic Doctor’s office to switch my son’s hand from a splint to a cast. The PA came in.

PA: “So, how’d you break your hand?”

My son: “Skateboarding.”

PA: “Were you wearing a helmet?”

My son: “Yes.”

PA: “Well that’s good. You should always wear a helmet. You would have much bigger problems than a cast, if you weren’t wearing a helmet.”

I smiled at my son. I think he learned his lesson. There was a good reason, the Holy Spirit insisted I make sure my son wore his helmet.