I smoked for right around 35 years, my wife...a little less than that. Two and a half years ago we both quit.
We had been on a short vacation down to the Florida panhandle and visited a small church for Wednesday night services. Enjoyed our visit at the church and the rest of our vacation. On the way out of town heading back home we stopped by the little grocery store in the community to speak to one of the cashiers that we had met at the church. While talking with her she shared her testimony with us. At the end of the conversation she made mention that she was quitting smoking and was using COMMIT mints.
Needless to say when we got home my better half had to purchase a box of COMMITs. They got placed on a shelf and there they stayed for six months.
The week before fall revival at church we decided to give the COMMIT losenges a shot. I did pretty good...didn't smoke any until the end of the week when I "hit a wall" at work. My wife did pretty good, smoked some during the week but cut back a good bit. The weekend that revival started we both gave up trying to quit and smoked regularly....until the following Friday night...
The last night of the revival we arrived back home and sat there talking in the car about our smoking. The next thing that happened was one of the most powerful prayer meetings I've ever been part of...just me, the wife, and the Lord. We started back on the COMMIT losenges the next day. We've been smoke-free for two and half years now.
My wife did it a bit different from me, but I'll share my use of the COMMIT losenges with you. Rather simple. I would wait as long as I could before putting one in my mouth...hold out just as long as you can. At first I would take a whole mint and place it in my cheek (like a chew of tobacco)...only moved it around to get it wet once in a while (it'll stick to your mouth when it dries out). Don't "work it" like you would a lifesaver or piece of peppermint...just let it sit mostly moving it around a little when it gets dry. If you start working it around in your mouth and speeding up the dissolving process it will be like smoking a cigarette to fast and like swallowing juice from a dip of Skoal....dizziness and indigestion. Take it slow and easy. Once I had had the mint in my mouth for a while I would take it out and lay it to the side....rarely finishing one in one sitting. Later as time progressed I started breaking them in half....then quartering them up.
The time finally came to "wean" myself off the mints....for me this was easy. Being as it is nicotine, the mints tended to give me the indigestion that I mentioned earlier....it got to be a case of "I gotta quit these things 'cause they're giving me the heartburn". Suddenly, rather than worrying about quitting smoking my thoughts had turned to quitting the mints because of the heartburn....that wasn't anywhere near the problem that quitting smoking was.
Don't get me wrong as I'm definitely not trying to be holier than thou or anything, but I'd like to share a couple of observations that I noted after I quit....
I drive our small church van picking up youth and I also lead adult Bible study on Sunday nights at church. The first thing is that after having quit smoking for almost a year I apologized to our very small church body about the way I smelled when I smoked...my hair, clothes, *breath*, etc.,..because smokers do "stink"...no matter how much gum we chew or cologne we wear. The second thing is what really gets to me. Picking up the kids(parents never come
)...you can definitely tell which kids come from a household where smoking is done inside the house....really sad...they stink. But, the fact that the kids are being exposed to that smoke...
After quitting it is interesting at times, I really have no desire to smoke but at the oddest times I'll get the urge to light one up...I simply don't dwell on it and the desire quickly passes.
The COMMIT losenges were a tool and I give all the credit to God and Jesus Christ. If I didn't give them the glory I wouldn't be much of a Christian, now would I?
Quit smoking? Best thing you'll ever do!
Best wishes and God bless you and yours,
Ed
