The Lighted Path

For those of you who have been around since the beginnings of my humble blog, you may remember that back in September of 2011 I had made the decision to quit smoking.  I am pleased to announce that today marks my 17th month of being smoke-free! When I tell others how long it has been since I quit smoking I get asked two questions.  The first is always how did you do it and that is always followed by was it tough the first couple of days.  To both of those questions I answer with prayer and putting it in the hands of God. Prior to this quit I tried many times to quit and I failed...miserably.  I didn't know why.  I always assumed that I wasn't ready to quit or that I needed to do it in my own time.  After looking back on these past 17 months I have seen (actually since day one of this quit) that that was the problem, I was relying on myself to quit.  Once I took it to God in prayer and completely submitted myself Him, the quit was nothing but smooth...

It really has been a little bit since my last substantial post on here. Now it is funny because quite a few of the blogs that I have read on blogging suggest that you do not apologize for not updating frequently and just blog! Okay, I get that. I suppose that if you have followers who enjoy your blog they would probably prefer you blog about something of substance rather then wasting the five minutes reading an apology. Then you have someone like me. I have a whopping one follower (who I am grateful for) and it seems that I am making, barely, a post a month apologizing for not posting more. It seems a bit strange doesn't it? Well maybe that is just the thing. Maybe I am lacking followers because...well...my blog is lacking. I may have a few return readers, but they do not decide to follow me because there is no real consistency around here. Now I do not want to misconstrue my intentions here, I am not doing this to see how many followers I can get or how popular this blog can bec...

...no not my actual name, but a name, or title, or whatever it is called for my blog.  I googled "The Cornucopia of Goodness" and while I know that I do not post as much as I should and didn't expect to see my blog at the tops of the list, I was surprised to see a few other blogger blogs, not titled but containing, with cornucopia of goodness.  Most of them being food related.  I admit I do like food, maybe more than I should, but that is far from what I had in mind when I created this blog back in May.  I actually gave it the name because the initial focus of this blog was a little bit of everything that I like.  As you can tell, and as God and time changes people, the main focus now if on my faith and faith journey so I need to come up with a title a little more fitting... any suggestions???   GOD BLESS!

I am really beginning to fall behind on my 30 Day Challenge! Ok so I am not that far behind, but my consistency is definitely falling off. If I am figuring this out correctly, I am still only one post off from hitting the 30 mark by month end. I really need to make sure that I make another post later on tonight. Yesterday was bit of an off day for the whole family. We had so many things that we were supposed to do yesterday, but we completely forgot about them. My wife and I had an argument yesterday early on in the morning which really set the tone for the whole day. The argument was, of course, over our finances. Not out how we are currently spending but rather our spending from the past. We both made some poor choices early on in our marriage but my wife still likes to beat herself up about it whereas I take the role of a forward thinker and not dwell on the past. It is no lie that money is the root of all evil, even when you do not have any! There was also mor to arguments than...

I am back and back on-track for my 30-Day Challenge.  Sure I missed two days, but after this post, I will be right on schedule.  I am well aware that it does not matter how many posts that I make, but it will be nice to see a total of 30 for the month of September.  I am not sure if I will see any additional traffic or gain any followers for this, but only time will tell. Today in my neck of the words we had a surprise return appearance by Mr. Sun!  After days of rain, rain, and even more rain I actually had the chance to...ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddsnenfefeff... Okay, it is 4:14am and if you look at that last line you will see what I just woke up to, only that is a small portion there was actually like 10 pages worth of that.  It is too funny not to leave in.  I actually fell asleep right in the middle of typing this blog.  Needless to say I am not back on track but still one behind!  I didn't even realize I was that tired!!!  ...

I just woke up about an hour ago and realized that I did not make a post yesterday.  I am not quite sure why but I was really tired.  I think that I fell asleep at about 6:30pm and slept until about 3:00am.  Now it is time to get ready for work, but at least it is Friday! I am still smoke-free, and the patch is working out great.  I am really hopeful that this is the last time and will finally kick the habit.  I feel really good, my chest doesn't seem tight every morning.  I couldn't be better.  The only downside is that I think I am getting a cold.  This is pretty normal for me when I try to quit though, and that may explain why I was wiped out yesterday. I hate to cut this short, and I guess this kind of goes against what I set out for in my 30 Day Challenge, but it is a post and you better believe there will be a better post later.  It may not come out to a post for each day in September, but there will be at least 30 by month end. ...

Okay so this may not be the most flattering picture but it is a picture of the first step in a long journey of smoking cessation!  I think that my prayer was answered last night and I was given the strength to put on the patch, and as I write this it is just a little bit under one full day.  I know that in the grand scheme of things 24 hours is not much, but after a summer full of failed attempts (lasting only mere hours) I have had my first taste of success.  I am excited and looking forward to being smoke free tomorrow too.  The only problem I see is when I run out of the five patches that I have now.  Money is tight now so I am not sure where I will be coming up with it but I am sure the Lord will show me a way.  I am just feeling really good about it this time.  Please continue to pray for me! Speaking  of prayer and praying, I have been doing a lot of this recently.  I have been reading my Bible daily and just really loving and appre...

I always see people doing these challenges every month so this month I decided to do my own. My challenge for the next 30 days is going to make at least one daily posting to this here blog. I know this doesn't seem like a very challenging challenge but for me it is. Now I am not talking about some lame old post, but I plan on making at least one solid post that has been well thought out and reflects my feelings for the day. Posts like "Good Morning Blogger...How are you?" will not do and are very unacceptable. My thought process behind this is the hopes that traffic increases and maybe I can finally get some followers! Will this work? We shall see at the end of the month! So long for now...God Bless.

I would say greetings and good morining to my subscribers/followers here, but unfortunately I do not have any on here so it is just a general Good Morning to all! I can not say that it is at all unusual to not have any subscribers, especially seeing that this is my first post since May. Sometimes I wonder what is the point of blogging or having a blog if no one is taking the time to read it or comment on it. I know I do not live a high profile life and I am nothing more than your average everyday joe, but I think that I can bring something to the table. I may not know what that something is, but when I do...I'll bring it. Now, you may be wondering why I would care one way or the other if someone read what I had to write. In all honesty, I do not really care, but I think that if I did have some followers or subscribers that took interest into my ramblings, or even if I got people leaving comments (real ones, not spam) it would help me stay motivated and blogging an a daily basis...