Well, to follow up, I finally went to bed last night and heard Sandy and
Gretchen talking.  carol and Mike had gone to bed, too, so until Sandy gets
up this morning, I won't know what Gretchen talked about.  As she talked to
Carol, however, I was in the room and I was surprised to how much Gretchen
admitted.  Gretchen left to use the bathroom at one point so I said to
Carol, she is high on something right now, you know?  Carol said, You don't
think I noticed that?  When Gretchen returned, she picked right up where she
had left off.  I had recently given Gretchen two books to read but figured
she wouldn't read them since she normally doesn't.  Since her car was taken
back, she has been forced to ride the bus and she has actually been reading
the books.  Last night she actually got the book out and read from it to us.
Carol did a good job of circling the wagons, sort of speak, because she kept
bringing the conversation back to what Gretchen was going to do about all
this.  Part of this conversation was going back to the Christian counselor
she had seen three times before and who is my prayer partner.  Gretchen
revealed some of the progress she had made by her third prayer session but
as so often is the case, people will back away from the truth when they see
it for what it is worth.  Of course, when this happens, the pressure builds
up and things get worse and for two reasons.  The enemy works harder to
deceive the person and the Lord let's him, not because he has stopped loving
them, but because He, the Lord, is actually in control even though the
person, nor the enemy, thinks He is.  Perpetual prayer, and the prayer of
agreement, as well as other factors related to prayer, makes the eternal
difference.  My daughter still has a drinking and drug problem, which she
freely admitted last night, so there is a very long ways to go.  Admitting
this very fact last night was the first step.  Seeing it all as sin is the
most important admission anyone can make and Gretchen seemed to have done
that last night.  Gretchen's greatest concern last night seemed to be she
wouldn't be able to even quit smoking on her own as much as she really wants
to.  My only contribution to the conversation last night was at this point.
Before I tell you what I said, let me point out that it is generally the
least destructive things in a person's life which points to the true nature
of what has caused them to react to the pain they have.  I have known that
Gretchen's smoking was one of her very first acts at masking the pain for
many years.  Rarely, however, will a person in denial even recognize this
aspect of their true problem.  Anyhow, Gretchen was talking about the drugs
and all she has done in the last few months and her smoking and everything
she couldn't give up without help.  During her conversation, she even
recognized that breaking her smoking habit was something that needed to be
done because of the roots it had to the truth of the real pain the caused
all this in the first place.  Carol carefully pointed this out to her.  I
told her a story about the man who authored the books she was reading
concerning his alcoholism and addiction to tobacco and how the Lord went
about setting him free from these things.  She didn't seem to understand all
I said so I asked her a question.  If there is a deep hidden pain which
caused this and the Lord were to show this to you and you were able to see
it the way the Lord sees it, do you think, once the pain was removed, you
might lose your desire for external things to mask the pain?  She saw the
truth of that statement so I also pointed out the guardian lie of denial
keeping her from even seeing the basic truth of God's Word and that seemed
to make sense to her then.  She also realized, by this point, no body in the
room was pressuring her to give up anything because only the Lord can do the
work.  This does not preclude, however, the possible need for drug
intervention through rehab and the like but it depends upon how much of the
pain can be quickly eliminated first.  If the healing process is slow, rehab
might have to come first to get a handle on the addiction aspect.  If, on
the other hand, she can begin the healing process through prayer and the
areas of woundedness can be healed, the desires will diminish rapidly.  This
part is up to Gretchen.  If she dives head first into the prayer sessions to
locate the areas of woundedness and allows the Lord to bring truth and
healing to those areas, she will make remarkable advancement.  If she
doesn't, the recovery process is going to be long and painful and with many
fall backs.  So, in short, we have just started to pray.  Keep in mind,
Gretchen knows about echurch and she has been told many times how much
people have prayed for her on this list alone.  It is hard for her to
comprehend.  It has amazed Gretchen in recent days that Carol has been
praying for her for nearly 9 years and Vicki has been praying for her even
longer than that.  So Gretchen is aware of your prayers and so am I and I
appreciate it.  We are at a crossroads right now so as I said, our prayers
of agreement have just begun for Gretchen.

Phil.