During a Wednesday night testimony meeting at my branch church one year ago, I stood up to express my gratitude for simply being alive. What had led me to this testimony? Actually it was the culmination of so many events. I had been raised in a loving family. I had had everything I'd ever wanted, including prestigious prep schools, travel, horses, friends—I was even sent to a Christian Science camp every summer. But I was always restless.
At sixteen, when marijuana was offered to me, I readily took it. This led to more and more experimenting, and by the time I dropped out of college during my freshman year, I had used almost every type of drug there was. On top of that, I was anorexic.
One year after leaving college, I met a man whom I later married. I thought I was doing the right thing, but this man had as many problems as I had, and drugs and alcohol were always in our home. Eventually, I had children and I stopped using drugs and alcohol during a period of five years. Unfortunately, this was accomplished by willpower and not by God's power, and I know now that anything done by willpower has not the permanency of a healing in Christ. During this time I became a compulsive exerciser, teaching two aerobic classes a day and lifting weights as well.
