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CBN.com – Stephanie Mitchen grew up in a small town and knew everyone. She had a great family and church was a normal part of life. Her dream was to marry and have children someday. When she was 19, she married. Ten months later, her dream turned into a nightmare.
"The first marriage was to a guy that was verbally abusive. It was the hardest thing that I did at that time, to walk away because I didn’t think God wanted me to be abused. And I got over that, and then I got married again. It was a complete rebound," she recalls.
Stephanie ended up getting divorced, twice by the time she was 22. She felt her only hope was to keep looking for love. She tried again and thought she had finally found the man she was looking for. A year and a half into the relationship, she found out he was living a lie. He had a wife in a different state.
"It was really devastating. By that time I was so numb, that I just thought, 'You know, that’s fine.' I was almost like it almost didn’t even hurt," she says.
She moved to a large city and discovered what she thought she was missing ... the singles scene. Her roommate introduced her to clubbing, and they started going out every night of the week.
"And that’s when I just drowned myself in partying and alcohol. I did a lot of dating too. I did a lot of drinking for probably six years or so. That’s all I did because I didn’t know what else to do, and I thought I was having a great time. I was having fun. I had even started fooling myself into believing that, 'Hey, you know, this is okay. Those rules in the Bible don’t apply to today. And, I just can’t follow that. That’s just too hard and God understands."
She became an alcoholic.
"I didn’t realize that I had such a problem with alcohol until I tried to lay it down. I called it socializing, which a lot of people do. It’s a social drink. I didn’t know what a social drink was. I'd go to dinner and I’d have wine, a glass of wine, two glasses, a bottle, and then I'd go out and just get drunk. I tried to go out and not drink. Well, I’m not going to drink much because I have to work tomorrow, and I couldn’t."
She got scared. She went to see her parents because she knew something had to change.
"I was so lost. From having had that relationship with God so early and having a mother that just prayed constantly for me, I knew deep down what I was missing. I knew that I had shut God out of my life, but I thought there must be something else out there," says Stephanie.
When she got home, an old party friend invited her to the very place she had been avoiding--church.
"I felt the presence of God there, and the message was so true. The preaching was just amazing. That’s when I walked away that night and I thought, 'I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to change my life.' "
She returned home with a lot to think about.
"I remember sitting here on my couch and looking around my living room and it hitting me that I’ve got this house, I’ve got all this stuff, and I don’t even remember. It was like my whole life, since I’d lived in Va. Beach was a blur because I had been mostly intoxicated the whole time."
Stephanie remembers thinking, "I have so much to be grateful for, and I’ve wasted it."
And that’s when she decided, "I’m gonna walk away. I need your help God. I am ready to lay alcohol down.”
God completely delivered her from that moment on.
"Without God, I’m dead. I’m so passionate about serving Him because I will never be able to repay God for what’s He’s done in my life," she says.
Stephanie’s entire life changed that day. She quit going to her favorite clubs and the daily temptation for alcohol was gone.
"And since that time, I have continued to grow and grow. I’ve done nothing but try and put Him in my life in every way. When I truly invited Jesus into my heart again, and I said, 'God, I’m going do it right this time,' that’s when I was full. There was joy that nothing on this earth could give me. It was just fullness. I was finally happy. I didn’t need things, I didn’t need materials. And I knew it was going to be okay. There was peace there."
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