{"id":341894,"date":"2024-08-29T11:12:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/?p=341894"},"modified":"2024-08-30T20:43:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T00:43:56","slug":"i-couldnt-sleep-or-do-anything-unless-i-drank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/post\/i-couldnt-sleep-or-do-anything-unless-i-drank\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Couldn\u2019t Sleep or Do Anything Unless I Drank\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in an abusive relationship. One boyfriend I had. He tried to kill me. And when he came to my house, I was coming down the block, going to the store, and he saw me, and he just pulled out the gun, and I just started running because I was with my friends. And I just started running. And basically, they thought I was running with a bullet in my back because of how close it was.<\/p>\n

I had a good childhood. My mother is a nurse. She always had 2 or 3 jobs. My father was addicted to heroin. So that led my mother to have to work. She was a single parent. It didn’t work out with her and my father, obviously, because he was a heroin addict.<\/p>\n

So, we eventually had a stepfather, and he was abusive. He beat me so badly one time I had bruises and black eyes. And then, my mother put him out.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIWhen I was in fifth grade, that’s when I had my first cigarette. And in junior high school, I had my first drink, my first 40-ounce. I didn’t start with drinking liquor. I started with beer. I would say that’s what turned me on to drinking. I drank every day, all the time. It became a habit. It was something I had to have. As soon as I got off work, I would go straight to the bars to hang out every day, all night, and then get up for work the next morning.<\/p>\n

I had sniffed coke a few times. I did ecstasy a few times. After I had kids, I didn’t stop drinking. I really couldn’t sleep or do anything unless I drank. I was depressed and couldn’t be alone. I had no self-esteem. I needed something, and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what I needed.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIMy brother came to The Universal Church<\/a><\/span> first. I saw how he changed. He was doing things differently, and at that point, I had already decided I wanted to change. I wanted to come to God. I was trying to find a church, and he told me about The Universal Church.<\/p>\n

The first time I came to The Universal Church<\/a>, I knew I was home. I’ve been to a lot of churches. What made me stay is that the pastor was honest. He didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear to make me stay or to tithe in that church. He told me what I needed to hear to progress spiritually.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cII surrendered everything to God, meaning myself. I’ve even put my children to the side and put God first. So once I put God ahead of my children, then that’s when I received the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

I no longer have any more addictions to alcohol or anything. I don’t do any drugs. I don’t do anything anymore. I’ve been alcohol-free for three years now. Depression? No. Before, I couldn’t be alone, but now, I push the kids out the door.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIAzalea today is a lot nicer and friendlier. I’m a better mother, a better friend. Now, my kids and I have a good relationship. My kids come to talk to me about everything. I speak to them about everything. My daughter is a volunteer assistant in the church now. My son is an auxiliary pastor in training. God has blessed my family tremendously.<\/p>\n

Now, all I want to do is save souls. I want people to experience what I have. I want them to experience what I’m going through, and receiving the Holy Spirit is the most important.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014Azalea Latimore<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was in an abusive relationship. One boyfriend I had. He tried to kill me. And when he came to my house, I was coming down the block, going to the store, and he saw me, and he just pulled out the gun, and I just started running because I was with my friends. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":341913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6063,20],"tags":[282,6156,6121],"site":[],"class_list":["post-341894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-transformation","category-real-life-stories","tag-addiction","tag-family","tag-the-holy-spirit"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341894"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342089,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341894\/revisions\/342089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341894"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=341894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}