4 YEARS PMO FREE! - 5 tips to SUCCESS!! - MUST READ! (updated)

[Vincent]

As far as forgiveness is concerned; remember, we are in forgiven for our sins because of Christ's sacrifice. So are other's including people with checkered pasts. One of Jesus female ancestors was Rahab, a former harlot. Don't judge anyone more harshly than you would want to be judged yourself.

thank you for that! the main pillar of a religion revolving around love should always be forgiveness! it is the one thing hardest to give but also the only one to break the cycle of hate and violence.

I am not (very) religious anymore. I very much respect every religion as a way of life, if this religion is of no harm to other people because of their believes and actions.
However, I am not very fond of the connection between the Book of Revelations and Porn, especially if this means to put guilt and shame on others.

WE WATCHED PORN - WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WE DO!. If we do not thake responsibility this would mean the reboot is meaningless since we are not at fault for having fallen for porn. It is easy to plead unguilty in this regard. But it is more like: I can't do anything else, the devil made me do it. And there I think to see an easy way out. But there is no eays way out. If you are drunk and hurt somebody it is easy to put blame on the "sin" of alcohol. It however was YOU who did it. YOU were to weak to controll it, YOU were not in charge.

I am well aware that it gives a lot of strenght to overcome a strong addiction like this with the help of ones believes. And I do respect that. I however do not agree with condemning others who don't as one likes them to.

In my opinion the first and most important step to overcome any addiciton is to take responibility and accept that oneself is the granter and denier of access to the substance. Everyone is free to believe what they want here and everyone can find his/her own way through the difficult times. There however is only the "right way for oneself" because everyone is different. We can give our advice to everybody and nothing more.

Vincent/over.

 

[dkg8877]

I have a question, hopefully someone can give some thoughts or feedback. I'm 3 weeks into my reboot. Aside from urges and quite a bit of anxiousness, I haven't experience any significant flatlining or depression. I'm worried that I'm not experiencing the up's and down's widely described. Obviously these signs are not something to look forward to, but they serve as signals that we're moving through the process. Has anyone else felt like they were not experiencing the reboot process?

 

[LTE]

I have a question, hopefully someone can give some thoughts or feedback. I'm 3 weeks into my reboot. Aside from urges and quite a bit of anxiousness, I haven't experience any significant flatlining or depression. I'm worried that I'm not experiencing the up's and down's widely described. Obviously these signs are not something to look forward to, but they serve as signals that we're moving through the process. Has anyone else felt like they were not experiencing the reboot process?

I didn't go through any profound symptoms of withdrawal.  No real flatline, the depression was sub-pathological. Everyone is different. Just go with the flow and stay the course.

 

[Arya]

these are very effective tips man , Thanks for sharing!

 

[lee]

Thanks for sharing!

Do u ever have (before u recovered) whole day sleepy symptom and brain fog? Does these symptom gone after u fully recovered?

 

[Leon]

I'll venture my two-cents worth, Lee, in answer to your question. The sleepiness is probably due to a lack of sleep on your part. And the fogginess (as I've seen that referred to here) may be what's called 'dissociation', where one feels kind of 'outside' themselves, or detached from what's going on. This is kind of a mental state where one is fixating on the cycle of sexual addiction.

To 'snap' out of it, one has to get their head into a different space- 'change the channel' as it were. There are many ways to do it, but ironically, it's not done by thinking, "Must not view porn, must not view porn!"

 

[TTrecover]

Supersonic,

Very detailed and helpful post. Nice Job. I can tell you put lots of time into it.
I will benefit from some of the tips you gave so thank you!

I just wanted to add the just 1 more time tip and you are exactly correct that its never just 1 more time.

As in other programs. Its the first drink that gets you drunk. Because if your an addict or other, we cannot just stop with a few minutes, 1 more time, just one drink, we have a mental obsession with a physical compulsion that is activated with the first one. 

Congrats on your one year! that is awesome!

Its one day at a time for me starting with today. I only wish for today, because we can do anything with the help of others and a power greater then ourselves for just one day. Forever, a decade, a year, a month, a week is not NOW, its not today. If I don't PMO today I wont have to start my recovery over again. Since every day is today and I stay in it, the time and rest of recovery will take care of itself.

Thanks TTrecover.

 

[olafthewise]

one other positive thing on temptation is that if you are on a legit website, for example: politics; stay on it, read the article you are looking for and stay on task. Being busy with a news article or other info will keep you reading and not thinking of PMO. when done, get a coffee or juice and do something non-electronic.

 

[Supersonic]

ANSWERING QUESTIONS & UPDATE:

I had a WOW realization:
I read an old journal from I think it was 2011 or 12 and as I read through the words of my old self (actually younger self) I remembered how LOW I actually was. I was kinda dead on the inside compared to now. And I'm talking spiritually! I had very little life in me. And I was not content.  I had no life , and I kept living in sin. I could not get out of the deadly spiral. Because I was dead, I could not see the truth clearly. And as little as I did see, it wasn't enough for me to would have been able to escape the sin. It is chains that the enemy had me bound in. And it takes God, to make us free. And if he makes us free we are free indeed.
BUT, I have to be honest. It takes ENDURANCE, STEADFASTNESS , EXERTING YOUR BEST EFFORT, and BEING SMART about it. FOLLOW the RULES. The REWARD IS GREAT! But it is not immediate. But, THE REWARD IS GREAT!

Do all you can, especially CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT! Delete porn , make it impossible to reach it, make rules for yourself such as curiosity is not allowed to be acted upon (because acting on it always always leads to worse, even if not immediately , it puts stuff in you, that will make you weaker for the future).

And, PRAY! And have faith.

I am a person who never looks back, and I almost forgot how bad I actually felt.
It was reading my words , that made me realize and remember where I was. I tell you I was in the grips of the enemy. And you do not want to be there. Happiness, peace (perhaps PEACE is the biggest difference of them all), you get peace that is in you always.  And that is sooooo valuable.

And as far as meeting dating and OR sex for the married. Being PMO free MAKES ALLL THE DIFFERENCE.

You will find girls to be soooo attractive it will almost be too much. But , that is a good thing. If single, use the energy to start dating etc. Girls will be attracted right back to you. Very very strongly, because of the vibe you will be putting out. It's like as much as you are attracted to them they will be attracted to you. As long as you are able to be a MAN, and know man is to lead and girl is to be a girl.  Guys usually can't get beautiful girls because they are not relaxed around them. And don't know that they should take full control, and lead, and BE A MAN. And of course you can't be a "player" either. It may get you results, but your spirit will suffer! And that's a guarantee. So be HONEST! Find a girl for you.

Want some more wisdom. Read the New Testament   It is like the hidden truth. And I say hidden because no one actually reads it. But if you do, you will be AMAZED!!! And even if you read it in the past, and don't remember it very well. Although the enemy will put it into your mind that you do, and that it is simple and that you know what it is all about. I tell you NO! Read it. And you will be amazed.  But it comes with a warning. It will enlighten you, and then you will be more responsible to God. But if you keep his word , you will be blessed!

OK, went off topic a bit..

But , yeah. The solution for everything. The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The ONLY way.

And yes, as you stop PMO, you will get better. Feel better etc.

All the best to you all!

 

[fightthefight]

Great to see you are still doing well mate. I get real hope welling up inside me when I read your posts - I think I've tasted tiny bits of freedom before and it has been amazing, as you say. Sadly I have swapped that all for instant gratification and ended back where I am. I am tempted to think I can have both - the inner peace and confidence you talk about as well as a bit of porn on the side. But of course it is a lie - you must choose one or the other. God does not want to share us with anything else. We are to belong to Him alone and He should have the first place in our lives, the best of us.

Keep posting - it is great to hear your insights and encouraging to think about the future without porn being a part of it!

 

[olafthewise]

The thing I always hated was a happy Christian. It's like Mark Twain (author of "Tom Sawyer") said once: "You should quit smoking, I do it all the time!"
So, I have quit porn, like, 5 times maybe. This time I am concentrating on not relapsing. My efforts to "please God" go without saying. We should all attempt to please God, but pleasing God by NOT doing sin is ludicrous. We are also not supposed to speed. I have never gotten a thank you letter from the government for NOT speeding and although we have rewards for kids who are good, the consensus is to NOT reward behavior that is expectedly good.
For instance, in all of 2014, I have looked at the least amount of porn for any year previous since the beginning. In November, 2014, I decided to stop ANY and all porn, soft-porn, etc. It was time to recognize the problem and end it.
As a Christian, I am not thanking God any more than before when I was doing porn weekly. You see, there is no alternative or replacement for the porn. I seldom masturbate to porn, ever! In other words, for me it was not P-M-O it was P-M.
My wife does not know of my problem. But her ignorance of my sexual needs should exacerbate the problem. It does not. I have NO REWARD for stopping the porn viewing! She has Vaginismus...pain during sex! it has been going on for 9 months and she has not once called for a doctor appointment.
Therefore I can thank God for the usual stuff. Quitting porn though is nice and good for me, but the timing for her coldness is odd and painful as is the disrespect. But God can be thanked I suppose, but my reward is more pain and frustration.

 

[George Oh Well]

That last one truly hit close to home. I was raised in the Church of Christ in a small town in the Deep South. I can only speak for the churches I have attended in the South, but they ALL believed that their small sect of Christianity represented the only "true" Christians. I have sat through entire sermons on how you will go to hell if you attend a church that has instruments or applauds during service. There was one sermon in particular in which the preacher justified not helping the community or becoming involved with other churches because they were all "wrong". This was the same preacher who was later caught having an affair with another preacher's wife and embezzling funds from the church. Needless to say, I became turned off by Christianity and religion in general and identified as secular until I realized that I had a problem and I discovered this site. I now believe in the existence of something greater than ourselves, whether you want to call it "God" or "light" or whatever, it does not matter. The point is, there are A LOT of bad people claiming to be Christians. Where I live, I would say over 95 percent are wolves in sheep's clothing. But do not disparage the religion because of the bad people who took it and gave it a bad name. You do not have to agree with religion, but we are all here for the same reason. Whatever your rock is, cling to it. It will be your shelter in stormy weather. I pray not only for my own success, but for the success of everyone that reads this. If you find that you want to live for something greater than yourself, God or what have you, then you are blessed and you have found the door out of this prison that is addiction.

 

[LTE]

That last one truly hit close to home. I was raised in the Church of Christ in a small town in the Deep South. I can only speak for the churches I have attended in the South, but they ALL believed that their small sect of Christianity represented the only "true" Christians. I have sat through entire sermons on how you will go to hell if you attend a church that has instruments or applauds during service. There was one sermon in particular in which the preacher justified not helping the community or becoming involved with other churches because they were all "wrong". This was the same preacher who was later caught having an affair with another preacher's wife and embezzling funds from the church. Needless to say, I became turned off by Christianity and religion in general and identified as secular until I realized that I had a problem and I discovered this site. I now believe in the existence of something greater than ourselves, whether you want to call it "God" or "light" or whatever, it does not matter. The point is, there are A LOT of bad people claiming to be Christians. Where I live, I would say over 95 percent are wolves in sheep's clothing. But do not disparage the religion because of the bad people who took it and gave it a bad name. You do not have to agree with religion, but we are all here for the same reason. Whatever your rock is, cling to it. It will be your shelter in stormy weather. I pray not only for my own success, but for the success of everyone that reads this. If you find that you want to live for something greater than yourself, God or what have you, then you are blessed and you have found the door out of this prison that is addiction.

If you don't mind; I'd like to indulge an opinion or two.

Much like yourself, I was raised in a sect that believed it had a monopoly on salvation and for many years refused to perform any charitable works for the community. Likewise, they abhorred other religions and seemed to labor at being so much as civil towards leaders of other religions. I spent a long time in conflict because of this example and I vacillated between loving God and being angry at Him.

That's RELIGION, not God. I worship as an individual these days and I don't allow any person or any group of people to pass judgement on my standing before my Creator. Some years ago, when I was troubled by things I was seeing in the religion I had been raised to accept, I went directly to a bible and read the gospel accounts. It struck me that Jesus' words didn't sound much like religious talk but sounded more like they addressed what I was observing, the hypocrisy and fickleness of people in a religious setting. I am proud to be taught by the words of Jesus and proud not to be an active member of any religious group. I am more at peace with my Maker than ever before.

Don't confuse religion with worship, they are not necessarily the same thing.

 

[fightthefight]

I'd like to say that as an active member of a church (and a theology graduate), I do find it sad when the Church gets a bad name because of the mistakes of Christians. At the end of the day, none of us are perfect or ever will be. Indeed, there are many people outside the Church and outside religion in general that are more honest about their struggles and weaknesses than inside the Church. I find that sad.

Jesus should be the focus and our example. He was brutally honest at times. But He was also very compassionate. He knew how to help everyone - those who were smug about themselves and their lives He confronted, those who were broken and seeking help He befriended.

When He left the earth, He also left behind a group of His followers and instructed them to be His body. Together, we are stronger and together we can help each other in our journeys with God. There are churches out there that are a blessing to be a part of - the one I am in at the moment is great. We have a real community. We don't try to hide our mistakes or shortcomings, but journey with each other.

All of this is to say, don't give up on the Church. She is not perfect and never will be. Indeed, there are many individual groups that call themselves churches yet don't act like Christ. But she can be beautiful too.

 

[LTE]

I'd like to say that as an active member of a church (and a theology graduate), I do find it sad when the Church gets a bad name because of the mistakes of Christians. At the end of the day, none of us are perfect or ever will be. Indeed, there are many people outside the Church and outside religion in general that are more honest about their struggles and weaknesses than inside the Church. I find that sad.

Jesus should be the focus and our example. He was brutally honest at times. But He was also very compassionate. He knew how to help everyone - those who were smug about themselves and their lives He confronted, those who were broken and seeking help He befriended.

When He left the earth, He also left behind a group of His followers and instructed them to be His body. Together, we are stronger and together we can help each other in our journeys with God. There are churches out there that are a blessing to be a part of - the one I am in at the moment is great. We have a real community. We don't try to hide our mistakes or shortcomings, but journey with each other.

All of this is to say, don't give up on the Church. She is not perfect and never will be. Indeed, there are many individual groups that call themselves churches yet don't act like Christ. But she can be beautiful too.

I'm sorry to say it, but after have my life ruined by gossip and meddling, the results of which have cost me dearly in emotional, personal and financial terms, I can no longer allow anyone the degree of access to my life that church membership requires. I will help other Christians, show them love, share in fellowship and support them any way possible, but I will never again join an organized religion.

 

[olafthewise]

While I agree with some of this we must remember that Jesus was correct in all he said. Also, the enemy had targeted Christians from the outside in the beginnings of the church. Later, the enemy targeted Christians from the inside. He starts with creating division by going to the leadership. Then the trickle down into the body of believers affects us all. While I cannot preach an entire message on theology I can say that sex and sexual issues in the church are not addressed as much as they need to be. For example; At my most recent church, the youth pastor ran off with one of the teen girls and the leadership demanded he return to his wife and kids. My question to the wife is; why was your husband so sexually unhappy? Can she take some limited responsibility to be a little more sexually adventurous? (Within reason!) He was still in sin and should have been more forthcoming. And when pastors give an opinion that has no biblical evidence, why treat his words seriously?
Let?s cut to the chase here; if you are happy and prosperous, thank God and be there for those who are less fortunate. Visit the lonely, give to charity of your money AND time. If you are sexually happy, you have no excuse to be looking at other women. AND if you are a pastor who hates sex, don't preach on it!! The commands Christ gave us are a model to us. Some commands are gray and remember, if you practice something that is questionably on the border of sin (like a young woman in tiny shorts in public) and a weaker Christian sees you doing it, perhaps they may stumble, so you need to use some wisdom...mind this term, use wisdom but don't make it into a Christian rule for sin!! Same thing goes for alcohol. If you drink and act crazy perhaps your drinking should be done alone. Another person may hold their alcohol well and is a polite person at a party where wine is served. Sin exists where you start causing problems and do nothing to control it! The same goes for sex. We are given 3 rules for sex; 1) only with married partner (man/woman no gay) 2) no animals 3) cannot deprive your partner (within reason-constant headaches don't count...Advil?)

As for churches that claim authority; there is always a limited amount of authority in a church as long as you submit to it and the advice is biblically backed. When a church calls out sin that is mostly a gray area, you need to call the pastor on it. Interpretation of biblical concepts are interpreted by other scripture and what the meaning traditionally, with the given language, means. Most traditionally recognized Ten Commandments are easy to understand. Telling a teenager that he is sinning by masturbating is simply inaccurate. Masturbation can be unhealthy, but sinful if done from time to time, NO. Also, porn is a form of worship. If we accidentally see a naked chick online but we click it off, we are not worshipping an image, therefore, no sin. If we dabble in a few naked pics, we are playing with nuclear fire and nuclear fire will get you burned, so avoid porn like the disease it is.
Again, if we get away from porn after a life of it, God is pleased with our victory, but God also expects us to trust Him and obey the command to not worship any object aside from Him. Simple.
If you are a happy Christian, great! If your marriage is good and the sex is good and satisfying, good. Encourage others to do the same in their marriage so that marriage in the church can be stronger.

Right now the church suffers because so many do not obey Gods command to please each other in the marriage. What kind of Gospel are we preaching if we bring Christians into the church and then tell them to restrict sex and sex acts in the marriage? I'll tell you what we will have, we will have unhappy Christians who are self-righteous and judgmental and teaching others to do the same because they haven't had an orgasm in so long. We will also have nervous wives who do sex acts out of fear of him leaving her and the husband will live in the same fear of serving the wife only to get sex after he has been so disrespected that his leadership is gone in the home and the real men in the church so powerless that they turn to porn or spend extra time at work or the golf course!! Then those same men will send the little wife to the school to protest the latest gay tolerance policies. The wives are then laughed out of the school because it is better to be nice, right???
Suggestion:
How about we husbands and wives in the church have a lock on the bedroom door so they can be nude together, stimulate each other on a regular basis. The man will then love his wife, she will respect him and his leadership and while they stand singing in church wink at each other because they both slept naked that night and no one around them knows their private secret, not even the kids who are in Sunday school. Then the next day, this husband and a hundred other pissed off husbands and dads show up at the PTA meeting and protest the latest gay text book. Imagine the fear on the school districts faces when a great number of Christian men along with their non-Christian male friends show up!
I digress.
Instead, our men and some of our wives are not sexually satisfied. They are preached to by men who often play politics in church and ignore sexual preaching...which can be done in a PG way. One or both spouses fake "happy" all day. 
The result is a weakened and silent church where men are told God made them gay and 'cross dressing is a human right.' 
If I was a non-Christian looking in at the Christian church, I would be discouraged...thank God our Lord draws people to Himself, because it certainly is not from a well-run church leadership.

 

[Leon]

So, I have quit porn, like, 5 times maybe. This time I am concentrating on not relapsing. My efforts to "please God" go without saying. We should all attempt to please God, but pleasing God by NOT doing sin is ludicrous. We are also not supposed to speed. I have never gotten a thank you letter from the government for NOT speeding and although we have rewards for kids who are good, the consensus is to NOT reward behavior that is expectedly good.

That's an excellent point. Abstaining is our moral obligation, our "reasonable service" as Paul says in Romans 12. It should be the 'least' that we do, is to abstain from evil.

But again, abstinence has it's own built-in-reward- namely, not being a slave to our passions, not being obsessive / compulsive sexually. 

Therefore I can thank God for the usual stuff. Quitting porn though is nice and good for me, but the timing for her coldness is odd and painful as is the disrespect. But God can be thanked I suppose, but my reward is more pain and frustration.

I'm sorry to be reading this, man. Not having your woman's support or respect is pretty tough. And for you to quit porn in spite of all that is pretty amazing, Olaf.

My feeling, though, is that at least quitting porn clears the spiritual atmosphere in your home, it gets out of the way unseen spiritual obstacles that may be hindering your guys relationship, anyway. It may be a good foundation on which to sincerely work on the other stuff you mention above. With the "elephant in the room" bagged and tagged, maybe this other stuff can be dealt with. She may, after a while, sense the strong man that you are, and the new confidence arising due to self-control, and it may engender a new respect for you as a delayed future reward for your efforts.

 

[olafthewise]

thanks.

Tonight, after dinner, I refused her a kiss. I am not developing a revenge policy with my wife though. I am simply fed up with no coital sex (PIV) for 9 months! She gave me that look of "oh, no kiss huh? well, how about no sex, haha!" Well the jokes on her. No hand job for over a week now and even that causes me injury since she is so poor at it! I have refused to touch her until she gets a doctor appointment for the Vaginismus problem. Obviously I do not refuse hugs or kisses, I just will not initiate either and since she never initiates or touches my parts, she may wonder at some point....
Then, tonight after dinner she retreats upstairs where she said she needed to finish notes for her job. She then spent over an hour on Facebook answering people in a prayer site because "they helped her so much" during our 22 year old son's rehab situation. I reminded her that this family...our family needs tending to now! She gave me the confused, "why are you so un-Christian-like when it comes to prayer" look. Where is my help? I suppose she could care less.
I am angry but focused because temptation is high.
I looked at muscle cars for my computer wallpaper today. No problems. Just trying to be busy. grad school starts up again next week.
 

 

[George Oh Well]

That last one truly hit close to home. I was raised in the Church of Christ in a small town in the Deep South. I can only speak for the churches I have attended in the South, but they ALL believed that their small sect of Christianity represented the only "true" Christians. I have sat through entire sermons on how you will go to hell if you attend a church that has instruments or applauds during service. There was one sermon in particular in which the preacher justified not helping the community or becoming involved with other churches because they were all "wrong". This was the same preacher who was later caught having an affair with another preacher's wife and embezzling funds from the church. Needless to say, I became turned off by Christianity and religion in general and identified as secular until I realized that I had a problem and I discovered this site. I now believe in the existence of something greater than ourselves, whether you want to call it "God" or "light" or whatever, it does not matter. The point is, there are A LOT of bad people claiming to be Christians. Where I live, I would say over 95 percent are wolves in sheep's clothing. But do not disparage the religion because of the bad people who took it and gave it a bad name. You do not have to agree with religion, but we are all here for the same reason. Whatever your rock is, cling to it. It will be your shelter in stormy weather. I pray not only for my own success, but for the success of everyone that reads this. If you find that you want to live for something greater than yourself, God or what have you, then you are blessed and you have found the door out of this prison that is addiction.

If you don't mind; I'd like to indulge an opinion or two.

Much like yourself, I was raised in a sect that believed it had a monopoly on salvation and for many years refused to perform any charitable works for the community. Likewise, they abhorred other religions and seemed to labor at being so much as civil towards leaders of other religions. I spent a long time in conflict because of this example and I vacillated between loving God and being angry at Him.

That's RELIGION, not God. I worship as an individual these days and I don't allow any person or any group of people to pass judgement on my standing before my Creator. Some years ago, when I was troubled by things I was seeing in the religion I had been raised to accept, I went directly to a bible and read the gospel accounts. It struck me that Jesus' words didn't sound much like religious talk but sounded more like they addressed what I was observing, the hypocrisy and fickleness of people in a religious setting. I am proud to be taught by the words of Jesus and proud not to be an active member of any religious group. I am more at peace with my Maker than ever before.

Don't confuse religion with worship, they are not necessarily the same thing.

Thank you for sharing your opinion. It confirmed exactly what I have been thinking for a long time. My fight against addiction has become a lot easier through the love of God and the support I receive from this community. I truly see God making a change for the better in my life.

 

[LTE]

That last one truly hit close to home. I was raised in the Church of Christ in a small town in the Deep South. I can only speak for the churches I have attended in the South, but they ALL believed that their small sect of Christianity represented the only "true" Christians. I have sat through entire sermons on how you will go to hell if you attend a church that has instruments or applauds during service. There was one sermon in particular in which the preacher justified not helping the community or becoming involved with other churches because they were all "wrong". This was the same preacher who was later caught having an affair with another preacher's wife and embezzling funds from the church. Needless to say, I became turned off by Christianity and religion in general and identified as secular until I realized that I had a problem and I discovered this site. I now believe in the existence of something greater than ourselves, whether you want to call it "God" or "light" or whatever, it does not matter. The point is, there are A LOT of bad people claiming to be Christians. Where I live, I would say over 95 percent are wolves in sheep's clothing. But do not disparage the religion because of the bad people who took it and gave it a bad name. You do not have to agree with religion, but we are all here for the same reason. Whatever your rock is, cling to it. It will be your shelter in stormy weather. I pray not only for my own success, but for the success of everyone that reads this. If you find that you want to live for something greater than yourself, God or what have you, then you are blessed and you have found the door out of this prison that is addiction.

If you don't mind; I'd like to indulge an opinion or two.

Much like yourself, I was raised in a sect that believed it had a monopoly on salvation and for many years refused to perform any charitable works for the community. Likewise, they abhorred other religions and seemed to labor at being so much as civil towards leaders of other religions. I spent a long time in conflict because of this example and I vacillated between loving God and being angry at Him.

That's RELIGION, not God. I worship as an individual these days and I don't allow any person or any group of people to pass judgement on my standing before my Creator. Some years ago, when I was troubled by things I was seeing in the religion I had been raised to accept, I went directly to a bible and read the gospel accounts. It struck me that Jesus' words didn't sound much like religious talk but sounded more like they addressed what I was observing, the hypocrisy and fickleness of people in a religious setting. I am proud to be taught by the words of Jesus and proud not to be an active member of any religious group. I am more at peace with my Maker than ever before.

Don't confuse religion with worship, they are not necessarily the same thing.

Thank you for sharing your opinion. It confirmed exactly what I have been thinking for a long time. My fight against addiction has become a lot easier through the love of God and the support I receive from this community. I truly see God making a change for the better in my life.

Since coming to this conclusion I have only felt closer to God.