I Am A Christian But Im Not Perfect

@Penny Hello there. I am a christian too and for the most part do not drink. Mostly means that I can count the number of drinks I have in a year on one hand and not use every finger. My parents separated when I was five years old due to my father's drinking and my older brother who chose to stay with our father started drinking with him at age thirteen. I told them both that I had become a christian at about age 20 or 21. My father thought I was 'brainwashed' by my mother and my older brother thought I believed in 'fairy stories'. Whenever I avoided having a drink with them they were quick to tell me that "one or two won't hurt", but they never stopped at one or two. For some people it is more than a bad habit. It is a terminal disease, a death sentence. I am made of the same genetic material and spring from the same background but I have little desire for alcohol and can easily say no. After my parents split I saw my father only at weekends for 12 years while I was growing up. Whatever else we did on that day he always had a 'little drink' first. I now understand that my health and safety were at risk much of the time because he was too drunk to act responsibly. He opted out of parenting the year I turned 17. I made contact with him 5 years later and I could see that the 'little drink' had gotten at lot bigger and there was less of anything else. He refused to see the damage he was doing to his body with it and took offence when anyone tried to explain it to him. Two years after our father's death my brother's emaciated body turned up in a cheap hotel where he had been living. I have known men who were fitter and stronger at 90 years of age than my brother was at [i]half that age[/i] due to his consumption of alcohol. He had other medical problems as well and alcohol did not help with them. It made him neglect his diet and medication.

@will999 sorry about your dad and brother.

@Penny Hi again. When I saw members of my own family drinking like there's no tomorrow I went to some AA meetings myself out of desperation as an 'observer' to see what I could learn. The meetings were free, voluntary, anonymous and fairly good-humoured (most of the time). Newcomers were allowed to claim the status of observer while they made up their mind whether or not a commitment to regular attendance would work for them. There I met some people happily claiming that they were 30 years sober thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous. The first thing I learned from those meetings is that until the drinker is ready to seek help [i]on their own account[/i] there is very little that anyone else can do for them. Many of the 'old timers' say that they had to hit rock bottom before they would even consider asking a 'higher power' or anyone else for help with a personal problem. I let go of my father and my brother not because I didn't care about them, but because I was convinced that I was powerless to help them with their drinking problem as long as they remained in denial of it.