Addicted

This afternoon I took myself to the movies, which is something I’ve started to do as a treat to myself. My intentions were to see The Equalizer, but the movie started way later into the afternoon. So I ended up seeing “Addicted”. Now I know you’re thinking: “What, you’re a Christian and you went to see that wretched secular movie.” Yes, I did. At first I judged the movie based on the previews. Just by the previews I was against it because in my eye’s it was just another way of America telling us how they feel about black women. –I still feel that America just views black women as sexual objects. Look at the movies, the shows (scandal), the music, and the way we are portrayed or mocked by other races. They always show us in some promiscuous, provocative way, and we are far greater than that. I still don’t support those stereotypical theories and ideals of black women being sexual objects, nor will I ever.- I was certain I was not going to see the movie, but I ate my words. Now during the whole movie I was clutching my pearls, because I don’t typically watch movies like that, for me it was a bit much (like WAY too much), but at the end of the movie I ended up crying lol. I liked it, I probably won’t see it again, but it was okay.

I’m going to try and not “spoil” the movie. You guys know how I am. I need things to have a purpose and a meaning, there’s always something deeper than what’s shown on the surface. That’s what I was looking for in this movie. Now the movie did reveal the reason why she was “Addicted” to sex, in the last 5 minutes of the movie. (I think they should’ve skipped some of the other scenes and made that more of a focal point, but whatever, I didn’t write the movie lol)

What I took from the movie is the things that have happened to us in the past, will affect us in our present or even or future. It’s up to us to determine if we will allow it to affect us in a negative or positive way. Are we going to use that experience to help us or are we going to allow the pain from the past to continue to hurt us?

 Now I couldn’t personally relate to the addiction’s the lady in the movie had, but I can relate to allowing hurt from my past affect my present. Something’s I don’t have to mention, because I have spoken about them in previous posts. Nevertheless, as I grew and matured, I had to allow myself to heal, in order for those past hurts to not consume me. See we are taught to keep pushing, don’t stop, don’t cry. Even in Disney’s “Frozen” we were taught “conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show”. I disagree!! In order to heal, you have to allow yourself to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. (There is beauty in vulnerability, even if it’s just you and God. That moment is beautiful.) You have to deal with those emotions. Ignoring them is only giving room for them to sneak up on you when you least expect it and put you in a choke hold! It’s okay to feel what you feel especially if you’re hurt or have been hurt in the past!! –There is a difference in allowing you to feel and to dwell. You don’t want to dwell on the past hurts, because it could lead to serve sadness or even depression. That is not the goal or the point. The point is to not keep things bottled up to the point we’re you explode with emotion and have a meltdown. The point is to work through your emotions, balance them out. You learn so much more about yourself when you work through your emotions, as opposed to numbing yourself or masking them. The goal is growth; we have to grow through things.-

One of the first few lines in the movie the main character says she’s trying to fill a void. When she said that I mumbled to myself, “Only Christ can fill your void boo”. One of the reasons I believe people form addictions, and habits, are because they are hurting and they are trying to fill a void. I mean we’ve all been there, some may have been worse than others but we’ve all tried to fill our voids with something other than Christ. And it wasn’t until we met Christ that we realized we could’ve never filled our voids successfully with anything other than him.

This post is not here to judge people that may have addictions, or habits or trying to fill voids in other ways. It’s simply here to offer some insight or maybe some help, to let you know you aren’t alone. We all go through things in life, but when we are hurting we have to remember, to not look to those people or things that will hurt us more in the end. However we must look to God who supplies our every need! Instead of jumping from guy to guy or girl to girl, or drink to drink or cigarette or drug, try jumping to God. Have a conversation with him. – At work when I find myself getting frustrated instead of shutting down (that’s my thing) I excuse myself, step outside and just talk to God. “God, okay, I’m really overwhelmed right now, I’m emotional, and I can’t deal with these people. I know you are strong where I’m weak, and Lord I’m feeling really weak right now. I need you. Please help me; please give me peace in this situation, so I can continue through this day. I thank you, I love you, Amen.” And that’s it! - 1 Peter 5:7 encourages us to cast our cares on the Lord because he careth for us. He cares even when we are having a “moment” at work. All you have to do is talk to him. I can’t stress enough that prayer is just a conversation with God, as you would with your friend. It doesn’t have to be a dissertation. It doesn’t have to include big Shakespearean words; it just requires you being open and honest with God.

Tonight I’m praying for the people that are dealing with addictions and trying to use things that will hurt them in the long run as voids. People are out here hurting, hurting to the point they are willing to hurt themselves more to “get through the pain”. They’re not in the place to pray for themselves so we have to intercede for them.

One of the lies of the devil is to get us to believe that we are suffering alone. There are other people that are going through something similar to you. I encourage you to find a support group, or someone you can confide in or call this number if you may be suffering with substance addiction/abuse or even mental health disorders 1-800-662-HELP (4357). Or you can google and find a hotline for your specific addiction.

If you love someone tell them

I love you

Destaynee